Judging a Book
by another.creative.lover
Summary: /SasuSaku/ Sasuke's a famous writer who definitely loves anonymity; Sakura's the new kid who's absolutely obsessed with his works. What'll happen to Sasuke's life when he accidentally crosses paths with her? To Erin.
1. By Its Cover

**Judging a Book**

**By Annee Nguyen**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

**Author's note:** Hello, dears! XD Welcome back to yet another one of my stories. :D The plot bunnies are just munching away at the back of my brain inside of their nest. Did you know that bunnies are really prolific? Yup—learned that by watching bunnies do it. That's what French films are for, right? (laughs) Anyways, this story came to me and I just thought, hey, my friend **Erin** would really love this kind of story line. So, here it is, to my dear friend, one of who has supported me all the way in my writing and believes in me with all her heart. :) Thank you so much for believing in my writing abilities. :D To **Erin**.

Oh, and to those of you who are wondering: this is going to be rated **M** due to the fact that Sasuke, as a romance novelist, writes very, er, _romance-y_ books that are very explicit (i.e. PORN!). So yeah. There shall be scenes from his novels from time to time (*insert evil laughter here*) and there may or may not be some scenes _not_ from his novel, if you know what I'm getting at. ;) Read between the lines, dears.

This fic may or may not add up to ten chapters. I'm guessing it'll end around there or so… maybe a little less, or a little more if I end up having a great story line that'll prolong it. XD But yeah. This will be good. :)

**Full summary:** Sasuke is a romance novelist—the most _famous_ one in the entire world, actually—behind the mask of a boring, emotionless, extremely _hot_ psychology teacher. But the problem with him is that he wants to _stay_ that way—psychology professor by day, writer by night, and stay completely hidden under his alias _Jiraiya_; but perhaps fate doesn't exactly want things to go according to plan, especially not when a certain very perceptive, pink-haired student of his who's an absolute fanatic of his novels comes into the picture…

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 1**

**By Its Cover**

**-xxx-**

_Click… click, clack_.

Quiet, nimble fingers went at the keypad, typing at an almost breakneck pace as the writer spewed out his ideas into the computer's word document, working on his newest creation that, in a short while, would soon be published. His eyes tracked the words as he read and re-read his sentences word for word, finding ways to revise any parts he thought were awkward or too… too… well…

His eyes found the words again as his fingers expressed his thoughts.

_As the couple made their way to the bed, Daichi's fingers found the edge of her robe, fingering the beautiful lace that clung to her like a second skin, growling as he felt her press herself against him, rubbing herself slowly onto his long, hard—_

'_No. That wouldn't do,_' thought the writer as he shook his head and backspaced. Too many '_-ing_' phrases…

_She moaned as he brought a breast to his mouth, slowly running his tongue along her areola and then circling up to the tip of the small, sensitive pink bud. Her moans made him shiver as he continued to slowly, teasingly, _achingly_ pleasure her, his hands trailing down her front, flat stomach as they found their way between her legs, his fingers ready to—_

He cursed as he backspaced again, fighting the urge to slam a fist against the wall. "Shit…" All of this was no good. What use would it be if he made this work seem like the last work? This was supposed to be a sequel to the last one, not an exact _copy_ of it. God, fuck him—how in the world would he be able to write an entire novel in _three_ _weeks_? He put the false glasses that he had grown so used to wearing down next to his computer and rubbed at his eyes, giving a tired sigh as he shut it off and patted it a job well done.

As he pulled on his typical pant-suit, polo garb and tried to find a suitable overcoat, he ran a hair through his messy raven locks, scowling at his surprisingly handsome reflection in the mirror, dark obsidian eyes glaring right back at him. He huffed again before he made his way into the kitchen and rummaged around, managing to find a beautiful, ripe tomato. He tossed it up and caught it, leaning back against the countertop to thoughtfully munch it as he thought about his freakin' dilemma that had to be solved—_now_.

"What the hell am I supposed to tell my editor?" he grumbled, giving the tomato another vicious bite. God, this sucked ass; why did writing have to be such a _drag_ sometimes? But, then again, it was always like this, him getting a _super_ idea, typing it all down in a night and then shoving it right up in the editor's face before he could even type in the name of the new novel that was soon to be published—which was what happened to his _first _work. The raven-haired man sighed, but he didn't stop the smirk from spreading across his lips. Okay, so writing did take a while, but, despite the drag of having to continuously pour out the ideas, he _loved_ it. Loved it with all of his (well, what he managed to scavenge from it) heart. The writing came to him in such a thoughtful, creative flash that he just had to write it all down before he forgot it. It came to him as a surprise because, hey, a guy like this—

Insert random picture flash of a guy with a super-hot, sexy, mantastical, emotionless face with raven locks, onyx eyes and a mysterious, not-so-emotional line for lips.

—could _never_ write books like he wrote.

The author picked up one of his old novels and randomly flipped to a passage.

_She panted as his hands slithered lower, lower down her body and clutched his hair as she felt his soft, moist tongue run across her swollen—_

He sighed as he flipped it closed and returned it on its rightful place on the shelf, grumbling about too many run-on sentences that needed to be edited out of there.

And so, there he was, leaning on the countertop, thoughtfully eating a tomato and contemplating on how he'd get the rest of his porn book out. '_But, then again_,' he realized as he stared up at the clock and saw the time, hurrying to grab his keys and textbook, '_now isn't exactly the time to worry about that_…'

The last thing that he grabbed before he headed out the door with the tomato in his mouth, keys in hand, and started the car was his driver's license, words in bold letters spelling out his name:

_**U C H I H A S A S U K E**_

**-xxx-**

As soon as he drove right into the parking lot, Sasuke gracefully stepped out of his car, slammed the door, and locked it all in one swift motion, heading toward the university campus to open his classroom doors and wait for his new psychology students to come.

It was an odd life style, but the raven-haired man didn't complain. He had always been interested in psychology, able to teach it and re-learn it and love it all over again like he had in his early years of college—but there was always that _other _calling. His writing. Don't get him wrong or anything—he absolutely _loved_ writing, loved descriptions, loved adjectives—hell, if one sentence completely described his life, it would probably be, "I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!"

And yet, as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to hide it, hide his writing ability behind the identity of a psychology professor, a boring young man who had nothing to do in life but to describe parts of the brain and how chemical imbalances affected behavior, yada-yada-yada. He'd even got as far as creating an alias—_Jiraiya_, it was—in order to write in secret.

Sasuke glanced up at the clock as he ate the remainder of his tomato. _7:50_, it read. A little early, but still, the students should be in class in the next ten minutes or so. He was just hoping that his students wouldn't be as fangirlish as they were the last year…

Of course, that'd probably be too much to ask for too—right?

"H-hello? I-Is anyone in here?" asked a soft, uncertain voice.

Sasuke's head snapped up as he saw a small, raven-haired girl walk in, her books hugged to her chest as she made her way in, big lavender eyes taking in the white-washed walls of the room before they landed on him.

Hesitantly, she nodded at him. "U-Um, m-my name is Hyuuga Hinata," she said shyly, walking up to her professor and holding out a shaking hand. God, she was so nervous; school had always been like this for her—which didn't seem so right, considering how school anxiety habits should have been changed around middle school or so; but, Hinata guessed that she never could and never would grow out of it. Her internal self sighed as she tried at an unsuccessful attempt to seem calm and confident, something she never was when she faced her professors.

Without taking the hand, he simply nodded to her and, picking up a random book from his desk, stuffing his nose into it, not before motioning for her to sit.

One student down…

"HEY, TEME, YOU IN HERE?"

Twitch, twitch. Oh, dear God—_fuck his life_. Sasuke dared to turn his head toward the source of the sound, apparently a very carefree blond who was already squeezing through the doors as he flashed a grin, a peace sign, and a very cheeky string of verbal diarrhea. "Hey, teme! You're teaching this class this year, ne?" The sound of hard-covered textbooks meeting wooden desks echoed throughout the room as Naruto plopped himself down and put his legs up on the table. "Guess that means that I'll have it easy this year."

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, glaring at his best friend (sadly it was the truth) to put his feet down before he would make sure that the blond would permanently forget how to walk. The raven-haired man smirked as he saw the blond receive the message. "Easy? There's no such thing in my class, dobe."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME, YOU BIG—"

"Jesus, Narutard, I could hear you from all the way at the end of the halls." A blonde girl walked through the doors, gritting her teeth possibly from the grating sound that Naruto could create with just _sitting_ and _breathing_.

Jesus. That takes _talent_.

Sasuke smirked. It was amazing to see how many of his friends—or people that he'd known from such a long time ago—still hadn't graduated with their degrees yet. But of course, Sasuke had just graduated with a master's degree in psychology and decided to just go into teaching it rather than studying to become an actual psychologist, and med school _did_ take longer than normal. It still surprised him to no end when he thought about how Naruto was still going through with becoming an orthodontist (I mean, who the hell would want to look at fucking _teeth_ all day?), surprised him when he found out that Ino (the other blonde) was studying to become a plastic surgeon—well, maybe not _that_ surprising—and surprised at the fact that the shy girl that he had in his class (he knew that she was Hinata) was studying to become a pediatrician.

Why, goes the question, must all of these different doctorates go through psychology?

Psh. Why the hell_ not_? (**A/N:** But seriously; in SD, it's pretty crucial that you take psychology in order to go into med school or even pre-med for that matter, no matter what field of doctorate you're going into.)

Hence, why being a psychology professor was so important to the lives of many. It was almost like Sasuke had their lives in his hand, ready to crush their souls if he wanted to. But of course, Sasuke being the emotionless, socially crippled young man that he was, he wouldn't have been able to if he wanted to.

Heh. Epic fail.

As the ten minutes started to spin by, more and more students crowded into the classroom, three becoming ten, ten becoming twenty until the entire room was filled with up to almost sixty loud, unintelligible pre-med (or med) students, bustling about their schedules and the latest chapter that they were told to read in their other science classes.

The raven-haired man stared out into the sea of students, and nearly groaned. So many faces to check on, so many names that he was bound to forget or never even know. And worst of all, so many _girls_. Not that they were interested in him, of course, with his glasses in the way of his _face_. Thank God. Standing up, he clapped his hands together and cleared his throat, noticing the instant shushing. The silence almost deafened him as he cleared his throat again, just to make sure that there was still some sort of sound left in the world. Then, he spoke. "Good morning, pupils," he muttered, his eyes swooping over them in an attempt to comprehend the staggering amount of students. "I see we've all decided to take psychology this year." An itch on his nose made him want to take off his glasses and scratch at it, but, remembering the enormous number of girls, he decided against it.

A girl smirked before she whispered something to her friends and raised a hand. "Uchiha-san, your nerd glasses are all giving us headaches."

The raven-haired man turned the other way, pretending to not have seen or heard that question, and, instead, posed a statement himself. "All of you in this room should be a pre-med student in some sense, correct?"

Murmurs of 'yes's and nods reverberated around the room.

Sasuke nodded as he walked back to his desk, checking his papers and his agenda before he returned his practiced dull gaze at the crowd. "Well, then—let's skip little pleasantries and get on to our first lecture and project." He nearly smirked when he heard stifled groans. Well, all except for one.

"D'AWWW, SASUKE-TEME, WHY THE HELL DO WE HAVE TO DO A PROJECT ALREADY?" groaned Naruto, shifting in his seat as he rested a disappointed chin on his tanned hand. "That's _uber_ retarded."

Sasuke glared daggers into his friend, gritting his teeth against the _unpleasantries_ that threatened to slip past his lips. Controlling his emotions perfectly, he gave his friend a smirk and said, "For you, the project will be due a month earlier."

Before Naruto could even open his mouth to complain, the door of the classroom burst open.

"I'm so sorry that I'm late!"

Oh, no. _Oh, no_. There were so many things with what had just happened at that moment. One: never, ever, _ever_ burst into Uchiha Sasuke's classroom _late_—if such folly ever happened, the student was to walk quietly, bow in apology, and head to the back of the classroom where the majority of seats were available. Two: the girl who had just burst in had _pink_ _hair_. _No one_ had pink hair. And three… God this was the most surprising one—this girl was one of the most (and he wasn't going to lie) attractive students he had ever laid eyes on—her hair, despite its odd color was whipped up into a tight bun, her eyes were an interesting deep green that almost seemed to compliment her hair in a strange, multi-color, clashing way. Her petite figure had captured his attention instantly, his eyes unconsciously zooming into the way her white blouse hugged her waist and accentuated that beautiful chest…

Gah, stop it! Now was not the time to be ogling over college girls, no matter how attractive they were!

He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down, trying to make himself seem like an angry, frustrated teacher rather than a porn writer. Great—stupid porn instincts. Sasuke leveled his gaze with hers. "Just sit down," he said in his smooth baritone voice, his eyes tracking her every fidgety move.

"Ah, yes—I'm sorry, uh"—she took a look at her schedule—"Uchiha-san." She scurried to the back of the room, trying to ignore the way the numerous girls stared at her with death written in their eyes. God, what the hell was wrong? She just came in late; there wasn't anything to be so homicidal about. Well, the professor she could understand—but the _girls_? Maybe she had interrupted something…

From her seat in the back, she risked a chance to raise her head when the professor resumed his speech, eyeing him. From first glance, it seemed like he was a regular professor—the cliché glasses and overcoat were there, not to mention the straight posture that practically ever professor on television shows seemed to assume. Sakura's eyes narrowed. '_Someone with _that_ much boring about him has to be hiding something_…' She noticed how he never seemed to take off those glasses that he had on—the ones that seemed to have lenses that were prescription, but Sakura knew better than to assume that. Seeing past the glasses that seemed to almost mess up his appearance, she realized that this man was incredibly attractive. Behind the grotesque glasses, she saw dark, obsidian eyes that could bore straight through her soul if she wasn't careful; top that with a nice physique and a great face and cute hair and voilà—instant cute professor.

She rested her chin on a delicate hand, her other one tapping silently on the desk. '_Why the hell is he trying to hide?_' Or better yet—_what_ was he trying to hide? Shrugging, she forced herself to tune into his lecture.

"—start out with a lecture on the brain. In psychology, it is _crucial_ to know the parts of the brain, where the frontal lobe is, the cerebrum, the hippocampus—"

_Yada. Yada. Yada_. She sighed and tuned back out. This was supposed to be a college course, right? Weren't they supposed to be learning something _new_? '_Maybe it's because I just went ahead of myself…_' she thought as she pushed her psychology textbook away. A smile graced her lips. "Well," she muttered to herself as she rummaged through her bag, "Guess this means that I can enjoy some reading."

And then, she pulled out an _Icha Icha Paradise_ novel, smiling in anticipation. God, she was excited. The newest book of the _Icha Icha_ series was about to come out in _three_ weeks! She couldn't believe how juicy the romance novels were. Turning the book over and caressing the front cover, her hands traced over the author's name—_Jiraiya_. Sakura grinned. It was so amazing how this man could hold the entire world at the edge of their seats by just writing a simple porn novel—hell, this man even outsold _Playboy Magazines_. That was what's up. And Sakura was a part of that entire world. '_I swear if I ever meet this man, I'll probably kiss him_.'

_Icha Icha Paradise_. Right in front of _Playboy_—full of beautiful, hot, steamy sex and romance and drama—what more could a girl like Sakura _want_?

Cracking the spine of the book, she started to read, unaware of her new professor's eyes on her.

—

Sasuke's palms sweated when he heard the faint, almost inaudible crack of a book's spine and saw a familiar orange book in the hands of none other than his pink-haired student. '_Shit… shitshitshitshit_SHIT.' His first instinct was to stop his lecture, walk up to the girl and rip the book out of her hands—but what in the world would that do? Probably make the girls in his classroom disgusted at him even more, but what about the girl? She'd probably cry and whine for him to give it back like how girls normally do. Then she'd be stuck with the mental image of a crazy psychology teacher forever.

Would it be nice to have a crazy psychology teacher? Life was full of ironies.

But of course, it would have been nice had the idea that this girl was extremely perceptive had passed through his thick skull before he actually went along with his first impulse.

Stopping the lecture abruptly, he briskly sauntered over to where she sat and, placing a hand on the orange book's open pages to obscure a very, er, _provocative_ picture, brought her attention to him. He gritted his teeth. "What in the world are you doing, reading things like _this_ in my class?"

The pinkette to his surprise shrugged. "I was done with my work and didn't want to disturb the class again by leaving. So I decided to make the best of my time with this." She watched as his eyes flickered with an uncertainty. '_Weird,_' she thought. Especially weird how most college professors wouldn't give shit about college kids reading porn. She stared up at him expectantly, the green eyes that had captured his interest at first sight meeting his stormy black ones.

Sasuke swallowed drily before he gently tugged the book out of her hands. "You can get this back after class." He braced himself, expecting a full-out scream from her, expecting her to revert back to her kindergarten days and whine and beg for it back.

But the begging or whining never came. Instead, she nodded and opened her textbook, watching as her professor walked back to resume his lecture on the brain's anatomy.

She smirked behind her hand. '_This guy might be a pretty interesting professor…_' she thought as she rubbed her now book-less hands together. '_A man with something to hide._'

From that moment on, Sakura decided that this year was going to be very, very interesting.

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** WHOO! First chapter peeps! Okay, so a few things about this chapter:

Sasuke is going to be about… **24**. And Sakura's going to be about **21**. :D So yeah. Just so we get the flow of the story. ^_^

Please do **review** and tell me how you thought of this story. The plot is still semi-developing in my mind, so I'd like some constructive criticism on your part, if possible. ^_^ Thanks for reading!

Flames shall be extinguished.

**Review, review, review.**


	2. By Its Attention Getter

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

**Author's note:** ^_^" Well hello there again! Second chappie to Erin's fic! (_laughs_) I'm sorry for those of you who are a fan of the Dedicated Two. XD Which is now the name that I'm going with to call this story and the story that I've dedicated to Laelia. :3 Because I'm writing these two as a project! (_fist pumps_) Anyways… time to answer some unsigned reviews. ;)

_**Rose: **_I'VE FINALLY GOTTEN AROUND TO WRITING! :D :D :D

_**Erin**__:_ Ha-ha, thanks! I'm glad that I managed to get the readers' attention. ;) The entire point is to reel them in, after all. And, because this is dedicated all for YOU, you don't have to worry. This is definitely going to be a romance novel fanatic's DREAM. XD Especially since it won't be the average romance novel. (_waggles eyebrows_) Happy second chappy day for you! :)

Enjoy, you guys. You all deserve it. :)

And, to those of you who are _my_ fanatics, thank you so much for checking out my latest oneshot (which is my proudest achievement by FAR), _**I Dream of Dance**_. :D You're all wonderful! (_kisses_) And, for those of you who haven't checked it out: O_O Do. So. Now. Else you won't get cool points which are mentioned in said oneshot.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 2**

**By Its Attention Getter**

**-xxx-**

Sakura tried to resist the urge to tap her fingers on her desk. Instead, she managed to fidget, wanting to bang her head against the desk as _Uchiha-sensei_—which she would now be calling him from this moment forward—continued to drone on about the first chapter.

Completely contradicting her previous thoughts that psych class would probably be fun.

What the placebo.

The class had seemed to drag on, and on, and on…

Wasn't the intro class supposed to be only a half-hour long? Or was she mistaken?

_BRIIIING! BRIIIING!_

_ …_

Never mind that thought.

Just as she was about to go and grab a quick cup of coffee and buzz about how seriously miffed she was about losing her favorite volume of _Icha Icha Paradise_ to Kakashi-sensei (who had managed to give it to her on lend), she stopped, mentally smacking herself for not realizing that Mr. Professor Guy had said he'd give it back after class.

Dodging people by the door, she jogged back to his desk, eying her professor when he didn't notice her crane her neck from behind him, looking over the engulfing black leather chair that seemed to swallow up everything except his spiky hair…

…only to find him flipping through the dirty orange novel himself, mumbling practically incoherent things.

Of course, Sakura was Sakura—meaning that she could _hear_ such incoherent things. After all, she was a born gossiper, trained her ears to hear everything that the normal gossip girl couldn't and her mouth to blab at light speed. With eloquence and training, verbal diarrhea instantly becomes charming satire—i.e., super sarcasm and witty comebacks.

All tactics of which were only used when in her home with her beautiful phone with the line connected to all of her girlfriends, of course.

But, to the poor professor's misfortune, his student had managed to unconsciously activate her acute hearing at his mumbles, hearing a curious string of words that seemed to come together like so:

"Still too many mentions of _meatsticks_." Another flip. "Eye riser, here…" A flourish of paper here. "Not enough pronouns—no, too _many_ pronouns—"

"Um, excuse me, Uchiha-sensei," she said, trying not to sound so sarcastic and failing quite miserably, "but what're you doing with my book?"

Realizing that there was a person behind him, Sasuke flinched involuntarily, the novel falling from his hands and into his lap. Swinging his chair around, he managed to hold onto the orange novel and adjust his glasses before staring up at his student. "No," he said, and swiveled back.

Sakura stood, dumbfounded. She was extraordinarily glad that her fists—one in her jacket pocket and the other holding the sling of her bag—were busy; it was hard enough not to strangle him as is. Without even a forced smile, she narrowed her eyes and said, "You didn't even wait for me to say anything."

He didn't swivel around while he kept at his computer work; for a moment, Sakura thought he was purposely ignoring her before he spoke. "You want your book." _Click_. _Click_. Adjusting of glasses. Another click. "I decided to make it easier for you; don't waste your breath."

She didn't budge. "Can I still have my book back though?"

If she hadn't kept her eyes on his face, Sakura would have never caught that small, twirk of the corner of his lips. "No."

Sakura just stood there, contemplating. It didn't make any sense; it was definitely common knowledge that professors didn't care what the hell you read—students were already considered as adults. They could make decisions for themselves, and professors surely didn't give a damn about what you did with your life. Not unless they wanted to be involved in some way…

She frowned. There were only a couple of ways professors would want to get involved with a student: a), if the professor found the student as a possibility of a love interest or b), if the professor was, in some way, indirectly sensitive to what the student did because of the professor's childhood.

Sakura mentally shook her head at option _A_. It was too soon for Professor Stick-Up-His-Ass to be interested in her as a love interest; love-at-first sight? Please. Psychologically, one would be attracted to a person's appearance. Nothing deep.

But what about option _B_? If it was option _B_, what happened in his childhood? Maybe not his childhood, she reasoned, because it could have been much more recent than that. Perhaps something like…

"Are you just going to stand there frowning at me?"

Sakura blinked. Wow. Still standing in front of Bastard-sensei. In his classroom. Gotcha. She struggled to keep down an oncoming slaughter of blushes that threatened to overcome her cheeks. Shaking her head, she craned over the sensei's leather seat. "Can you just give it to me so that I can go?"

Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw the girl's reflected face in the monitor. '_Crap_,' he cursed silently as he swiveled the chair so that it pushed her away from him just gently enough to keep her from seeing his attempt at his newest novel, the one he was _still_ struggling with since the morning. When the browser changed, he sighed in relief.

A little _too_ loudly.

At that, Sakura narrowed her eyes. Huh—so her hunch was right. He _was_ hiding something. She had managed to catch a glimpse of a word document sliding off the monitor screen just as he was shoving her brutally away with that stupid swivel chair of his. "Writing something, sensei?" she asked teasingly, hoping that she would get some reaction from him.

And a reaction, she did. At her words, he visibly stiffened for a quick moment before settling down just as quickly. "Yes, actually," he said, trying to keep his voice as smooth as possible. '_That's alright,_' he told himself, '_She probably just saw a word doc; might as well tell _half _the truth._' He swiveled around, grabbing her orange novel from his right drawer before holding it in his lap, watching her hands fidget. "I'm writing a letter for my next meeting with the Director."

"Oh." _Liar_, she thought as her intuition flickered.

"Here." Sasuke handed the orange book almost lazily to her. He kept his gaze on her when she took it back graciously. Before she managed to escape, he called back to her from his computer monitor. "I do suggest, Haruno-san, that you manage to find some proper reading material. I do not want you failing my class."

Sakura stopped, her hand on the door frame. Looking over her shoulder, she sent Sasuke a small smile—pale pink lips upturned at both corners, crinkling eyes with a mischievous sparkle in both green irises—, one that made Sasuke actually think to breathe.

"Fail your class?" she asked almost too innocently. "Why, I never fail _any_ of my classes, Uchiha-sensei."

"Really?"

She tilted her head. "I'm confident enough in my intelligence, thank you very much, Uchiha-sensei." Another eye-crinkling smile. "If anything, I'm worried about what might happen to _you_ after I'm done figuring out what it is that you're hiding."

Sasuke wondered if she had noticed that he'd stopped breathing. His glasses slid down a millimeter. It seemed as if his windpipe had decided to stuff cotton balls into itself.

Sakura smiled in triumph. "G'bye, sensei. I'll probably be paying you a visit sometime again after class."

**~.:::.~**

Sasuke let out a relieved sigh when she left, slumping in his seat as he slapped a palm to his head. He groaned at the email his editor sent him.

Apparently, he had three months to cough up a manuscript—paper clipped and all—to the publishing company.

That spelled _disaster_.

Let's do the math, shall we? His last novel took him approximately two months to find inspiration and start drafting. The entire drafted manuscript took him six months. Two months plus six months—eight months. For one smut novel.

How in the world did they expect one from him in _three_?

His mind went through the calculations. He could write approximately five pages of the novel a day; after all, his novels were one hundred to two hundred pages tops, so he could finish writing the novel in about a month-and-a-half. That meant he had about a month-and-a-half to find some inspiration.

Six weeks.

He needed to find some inspiration—and _fast_.

**~.:::.~**

Sakura sat at the back of the classroom again, bored out of her mind at the professor's lecture. She slightly regretted finishing the entire psych textbook over summer, but what other reading material could she have kept herself busy with while waiting for the next novel of _Icha Icha_? Instead of dwelling and drooling over the long-awaited next novel, she plopped her chin on her hand and stared at her teacher.

His curious behavior a week ago came back to haunt her. When he had been flipping through her book yesterday, it seemed as if he were analyzing it; there was nothing on his face signaling her disgust to her taste in literature, but rather the face of a rhetoric teacher analyzing and grading an essay of one of his students. Sure, Uchiha probably had to have had some sort of English degree in order to become a psychology professor, but who would analyze a _porn novel_ in their spare time, let alone the porn novel of a fellow _student_? After that, he had even refused to hand it back, as if reluctant to let anyone else see it—not from disgust of the content of the book, but from disgust of how it seemed to have been written.

'_Come to think of it,_' she thought, '_he seemed pretty tense when I came around to look at his computer screen and when I asked him if he was writing something._'

It was as if he thought she knew something he was trying to hide.

So what was he—a writer? Probably a bad one if he was so nervous about people catching him in the act of writing his—whatever it seemed to be. Maybe he was an editor, honing his skills yet embarrassed about how much of an epic failure he was at his "secret" job.

But then…

What if the disgust at the novel and the analyzing and the secretive business…

What if Uchiha Sasuke, boring, geeky-looking psychology sensei, was the actual author of _Icha Icha_?

The thought of meeting her hero made her insides tingle.

She gnawed on the inside of her cheek and narrowed her green eyes when their gazes met; she saw something flash behind the lenses of his glasses before he turned away and continued his lecture on action potentials within the neuron.

Whatever the situation was, Sakura was definitely going to get to the bottom of this. Uchiha-sensei was simply too interesting for his own good.

When the bell rang and her classmates clamored to their feet, pushing and shoving each other to get out of the door and to wherever they'd be next, Sakura walked up to his desk and plopped her stuff upon it to get his attention. At the sharp glare he sent her, she had captured his attention. "Uchiha," she said without preamble or a hint of politeness, "I don't know who you are or what you do, but I have a feeling you're hiding something."

Sasuke stiffened ever so slightly. What a nosy brat. "What's it to you?"

Sakura shrugged. "I get bored, and you happen to be pretty interesting, considering how secretive you are with what you do in your spare time."

"Oh?" He didn't look up from his screen as he continued typing another email to his editor about a date of extension. When she tried to look around to the front of the screen, he clicked onto another tab.

"See, you did it again!" she said as she pointed an accusing finger at him.

He stopped a minute to glare at her. "Reading another person's emails is illegal."

"Being secretive is illegal, too," she shot back with a petulant growl.

There was a moment of silence. "What do you _really_ want?" Sasuke muttered.

Sakura pouted and batted her eyes. "I just want to get to know my sensei and what he does in her spare time."

He snorted. _Click, clack_ went the keys. "Figure it out by yourself." When she smirked at him, he couldn't help but feel slightly unsettled.

"I think I actually may have."

Sasuke's fingers stalled a brief moment before resuming his typing. His heart pounded in his chest. Impossible. How could she have figured it out so fast? It had only been a week. It had to be a bluff. He tried to look as if he was completely unaffected by her words. "Really."

Sakura plopped herself down in front of him. "Yeah."

"Do tell."

Smirk. "You're a psychology teacher…"

He snorted. "I'm sure you've confirmed that by now."

"Wait! I'm not finished." She held up her index finger at him, staring at him intently before she continued. "_But_, you're also the author of the erotica series _Icha Icha_."

His blood froze over. Inside, he clicked his tongue at himself in admonishment, knowing he had clearly underestimated her. By this time, he had quit his typing and turned to face her directly, narrowing his eyes at her. He wouldn't let her have the last say in this. "What makes you say that?"

"Glad you asked, sensei," she said, the smirk crawling across her face again. "Let's just say I've noticed you analyzing my book, and you seem pretty tense every time I get to your computer. You always seem to be hiding some sort of writing from me."

"But that's where you're wrong," he said smoothly, smirking back at her. "There's no concrete proof behind you statements; it's all speculation. And," Sasuke added as he pointed to the book with a sure-fire finger, "it says that a man by the name of _Jiraiya_ writes these novels."

Sakura batted his hand away from her book. "But writers _always_ have pennames! What if you're just using this _Jiraiya_ name to cover up for the fact that you really are the author of _Icha Icha_?"

As the two of them stared at each other from across the table, the both realized the other was right—what a stalemate this was.

Sasuke cursed. First the impossible three month deadline and now this girl. The girl would be an enormous distraction to his writing—how could he find inspiration, finish a manuscript and keep a girl from figuring out his secret identity in three months? The girl would obviously follow him around to figure out her theory, keeping him preoccupied enough to keep him away from writing for a while. Without the publication, she would immediately know that _he_ was "Jiraiya" just from the fact that the book he was unable to write wasn't on the shelves. Definition by subtraction, the law went.

He thought fast. When an idea struck him, he evaluated it. And then, with a satisfactory smirk, he turned his attention back to her. "Alright. Fine. How about this? You've got a month to find some dirt on me. If you can find some concrete evidence, we'll do whatever you have in mind. _However_," he said, continuing over her attempt to speak, "if you fail to do so"—a corner of his lips lifted—"_you_ have to do what I want."

She rolled her eyes. "And what _exactly_ do you have in mind?"

He kept his eyes on her. "I want you to sleep with me."

_That_ made Sakura nearly gag on her spit. "_Excuse me?_"

He shrugged. "Only if you want to find out the truth."

Internally, Sakura was biting her nails. Where did _this_ come from? I mean, sure the guy was hot behind those nerd glasses, but…

Truth be told, she was still a _virgin_.

The thought of giving herself to her psychology professor—no matter how much of a weapon of mass seduction he was—scared her.

She swallowed soundlessly. Whatever. It wasn't like she was going to lose. Sensei had the lower hand at this point, considering how much he had underestimated her and her brains. She'd show him what she was _really_ made of—and of course, get an autograph on the side.

She wasn't wrong. She couldn't be wrong. Her gut feeling told her this was the guy…

Sakura stared back at him, determined. "Fine. You got a deal."

As they shook hands, neither of them realized how much of their lives would be consumed by this deal.

And so the games began.

**~.:::.~**

**Author's note: Whoo-hoo! Sasuke's out for some inspiration for his book; Sakura's out to find the truth. Who will be first? Who knows?**

**You will if you review my chapter. ;) Just click the button down there and send me a nice message! I'll be waiting~. **


	3. By Its Plot

**Disclaimer:** Don't own Naruto. Q_Q

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 3**

**By Its Plot**

**-xxx-**

Sasuke went home that night torn between feeling pleased and utterly self-disgusted. He had congratulated himself on the fact that he had managed to slither out of a rather tough situation with that girl, what with his ever hard-working brain—but then stopped himself when he realized what he had done.

He was a professor.

And he had just asked his student, essentially, _to have sex with him_.

The scandalous factor grew. Sasuke nearly banged his face against a nearby wall in frustration. Out one problem, into another. She could have possibly sued him for even mentioning the _idea_ of having sex with her professor! What was he _thinking_?

'_About nothing but sex, that's for sure_,' he answered himself, plopping himself down on the bed.

But he couldn't deny to himself that the girl was an extravagant, exotic beauty. He closed his eyes, images of pink hair, green eyes, and alabaster skin swarming his vision. Sitting up abruptly, Sasuke shook his head. '_No,_' he told himself, '_I shouldn't think about the enemy like this._'

The girl was only going to be in the picture until he got his inspiration. That was all. Sure, she was attractive, but he wasn't going to be distracted. Besides, the idea of having sex with a professor probably got to her, too. If she was smart, she'd back out of the deal entirely, and save them both from unwanted sex.

He groaned and reached for a pair of loose-fitting pants when his crotch—hard and throbbing like a painful headache—disagreed with him.

**~.:::.~**

"He wants you to _what_ with him?"

Sakura sighed, massaging her right temple. God, this day… She hugged her pillow closer as if in an attempt to shield herself from her blonde friend's shock. "Uchiha-doofus-sensei wants me to sleep with him if I don't prove that he's the author of _Icha Icha_."

Ino wrinkled her nose. "I really can't believe you still read those."

Sakura returned a smile. "Honey, girls aren't supposed to _watch_ porn. We read the fuckery out of it."

"Right… but if you don't hurry up with some dirt soon, you might be making some porno yourself."

"No, Ino," Sakura said, dropping her fist into her pillow. "I know I'm right. _He's_ the guy! I mean, it's so stereotypical! Just imagine it: it's a boring-to-death professor who has a tight, boring schedule. He should have _something_ hide if he's trying to be 'normal,'" she theorized, making finger quotes out of the last word. She huffed before throwing her head back into her other pillows and turned her head toward her friend. "Ino, what's the first thing that pops into your head when you think of the name 'Jiraiya'?"

"Honestly? A pervert who spies on women while they're bathing and plays with toads."

"Exactly!" Sakura said as she shot up into a stick-straight sitting position. "It's such an exciting name, it's gotta be this guy!"

Ino could only stare at her friend. It was one thing to be super, read-all-your-textbooks-during-the-summer, do-every-assignment-before-they're-due smart… and it was another thing to be obsessively Sakura. She could only sweatdrop as her friend put together theory after theory against their boring professor.

Ino smiled. _Oh, Saks_, she thought, shaking her head with amusement. "You know what, Saks? I'm sure you'll prove it." Her hands shot up in defense when Sakura gave her a suspicious, pointed look. "No sarcasm included. I mean, for you to bet something as serious as your virginity on this case… I'm sure you will." She rose up her cup of tea to her friend with a smile. "To Miss Future _Summa Cum Laude_."

Sakura laughed, raising her mug in like. After the two girls had finished their tea and proceeded onto other miscellaneous dramas—like, how on _earth_ was Ino going to persuade Shikamaru that she was definitely a lot awesome-er than that Temari tomboy?—and gossip, Sakura waved Ino off outside the door of her dorm and went back into the recesses of her bedroom. Picking up another cup, she sat down on couch, pulled her knees to her chest and nibbled on the edge of her cup, no doubt creating an ingenius plan.

She took a sip of the bitter liquid, smacked her lips, and closed her eyes. Find a way to get close to the guy, she told herself. It was the obvious way, but it was also the most sensible—after all, if she had resorted to putting cameras in his house, there was the possibility of going to jail had the sucker found a bug in his computer. Besides, with her new reaction out of him recently, Uchiha would be a lot more careful about screwing up and more suspicious.

She smiled, cracking open her eyes. She knew for sure he was the guy. Her gut had told her, and his reaction had said everything. And since the guy would want to keep his eyes on her to keep her from prying into anything…

Another sip.

"I think it's about time to get to know Uchiha-sensei."

The stirrings of the plan began. And now, all Sakura had to do was sleep on it.

**~.:::.~**

"What do you want _this_ time?" Sasuke droned. Off he was, clacking away at a manuscript he had managed to start. Earlier that morning, he had shrugged at an attempt to actually have some sort of plot to his story; after all, all the industry ever saw in his novels was that they were more sex than plot.

At the moment, the main female character had taken to fucking her male partner senseless.

The relationship between his characters was a nice thought for Sasuke, who (in the past couple of years) wished for something that breached more than just sex. His only inspirations on the past two novels were a couple of well-utilized one-night stands.

What he wouldn't give for a proper relationship…

"Uh, sensei?"

He blinked, and in front of his face, he saw a hand in motion, realizing that—while he had been so _carelessly_ daydreaming—his least favorite student (at least, so he told himself) was standing right in front of him. While he had left his poor manuscripted screen to the pink-haired, figurative wolves. He put himself on the defensive with a curt, "_Nanda_?"

He had been half-expecting a slap in the face. Instead, Sakura graced him with a smile.

With the only the corners of her mouth tilted up and the muscles of her face barely moving, he knew she was faking it. Damn that girl. What was she planning now? To be on the safe side, he switched tabs on his computer. "What's with the clown face, Pinky?"

At his question, she frowned, her bottom lip protruding in a pout. "Why, sensei," her voice dripping with false hurt, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were bothered by me."

"_Annoyed_ is a more proper word in context," he muttered, clicking on random links. Gosh, he needed a new background on his PC…

He heard her hum and barely detected a smile in her voice. "Well, I guess a little rendez-vous with me could change that, right?"

Sasuke nearly choked on his spit. He jerked his head sharply toward her. "_What?_"

The face she returned was in fact so coy that if he weren't Uchiha Sasuke, he might've blushed. "You heard me."

"You're my student."

"Yeah, and?"

"That's _improper_."

Coming from the guy who probably wrote porn nearly made Sakura burst into laughter by the sheer irony of the situation. "C'mon, I'm sure you've heard of stories where teachers date their students. It's not like it's illegal or anything," she said, rolling her eyes. "We're both adults here, aren't we?"

"Right," he said, a hint of sarcasm dripping from the monosyllabic word. _Click_, _clack_ went the keys, as if goading Sakura to go on with her proposal.

And go on she did. "C'mon, Sasuke-kun, lighten up! Just go out one night and have fun with me, and if you don't enjoy it, then I'll never ask you out again."

Sasuke stiffened. He pushed away from his work and turned to completely face the girl in front of him. "What did you call me?" The stirrings of a memory began in the deep recesses of his mind.

At his question, Sakura flushed. She hadn't meant to be that direct with him about his name. Gosh, after all that planning, a simple _name_ really _would _be the one to break down her entire plan like—

"Alright."

She blinked. "Huh?"

He spun away back to his computer, the dim light of the computer reflecting onto the lenses of his glasses. "I'll go."

**~.:::.~**

After her quick instructions—_"Pick me up at my house (here's the address) at six, and I'll take the fun factor from there!"_—Sasuke had driven home, corrected all of the quizzes on the first chapter (reluctantly giving Haruno her perfect score she had been so confident about), and got ready.

As he tied his tie and combed his hair, he couldn't help but wonder: what was she hiding up her sleeve? Was this a part of her big plan to uncover his secret identity and have some proof behind it?

Probably.

He had seen his fair share of detective movies and learned the motto of every police detective. In this case, it was "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

And Sakura was just beginning to carve her plan out of that motto.

He had checked his entire place for any hidden cameras (couldn't have been too sure) in case she found his home and had broken into his place at night, but then figured it would have been much more reasonable to break in and steal the actual manuscript he was working on or old works of his involving _Icha Icha_. To keep him from noticing though, she had probably made a copy of his manuscript or old works instead…

He shook his head, then scowled when he realized he had messed up his hair again. No, that would have taken ages to download. And Sakura was by no means a successful FBI agent, so she could not have broken to his house or planted any bugs.

It was ridiculous even to think of it.

So then…

He chewed the inside of his lip.

… Sakura had probably chosen the date as a last, safe resort. Get-to-know-the-enemy kind of strategy.

Sasuke smirked before giving up on his hair and pulling on a tweed jacket. _Well then,_ he thought, _I can probably pull my own weight in her scheme and find some inspiration for my own writings. _A romantic night on the town, probably a dinner date or a movie? Clichés galore, and impending sex (for the novel, of course). Readers would eat it all up.

He hunted for his shoes. _She's probably going to try to make me melt for her, that femme fatale incarnate_, he mentally scoffed. But…

His hands tightened around the doorknob.

… she was coming awfully close to succeeding. The way she had called him by his name, in the way only one person had, had made him give in almost immediately to her date. It was heartwarming and gut-wrenching at the same time.

Grabbing his keys, he headed toward the garage and slipped into his car.

A smirk curled upon his lips and slipped off his glasses. It was time to step it up a notch; she wasn't the _only_ one with the powers of a weapon of mass seduction.

**~.:::.~**

Sakura had always been the confident one growing up. In elementary school, she had always had the most stars because she led her group in all the Jeopardy games. In middle school, she walked into an academic competition and watched as the competitors trembled at her wake. And in high school, everyone watched in awe as she fought with Shikamaru for the spot for valedictorian with the ferocity and determination of a lioness. Even as she walked toward her door when it rang, she was confident about her skills in seducing and winning over her professor.

But when she opened the door, she recognized her pounding heart and her sweating palms at the sight before her as symptoms of the disease called _panicking_ _uncertainty_.

Sasuke was leaning against the door, clad in fitted jeans, a T-shirt, and a tweed jacket, his leather belt matching beautifully with his shoes. His posture, despite being slanted by his dependence upon her door, oozed an innate, aloof confidence, his shoulders wide and powerful. But the worst part, the part of him that got her blood pumping and her breathing irregular was the fact that his glasses were _gone_, revealing pools of obsidian peeking behind his unruly, spiky bangs and the sort of face that would befit a male model or a Roman patrician.

She hoped that her swallow wasn't audible.

"You going to stare at me for the rest of the evening, Pinky?" She couldn't tear her eyes away from the way his lips moved and curled into a gorgeous smirk.

At the moment, she hated the heavens for giving her such a sexy, undercover yet sinfully boring man as a professor. She'd have to be careful, else _he_ would be the one seducing _her_—and then, her plan would crumble. Taking in a sharp breath, she stood straighter and stared down her nose at him. "Uchiha," she said coolly, leveling her gaze at him. _Don't lose track of the goal here, Saks. It's all you_. She gave him a smile, not realizing that Sasuke was having his _own_ internal conflicts.

Sasuke mentally _tsk_-ed himself. Once again, he had underestimated her. Eying her dress and the curves it outlined while providing teasing glimpses at her collarbone, creamy shoulders and legs, he started to wonder whether taking her on was a good idea. Surely if he turned down this date, she wouldn't pry any more nor question his "boring-ness" as she so endearingly termed it. Inspiration could always come from another source, another one night stand; after all, he was in the writing business to make money, right?

But he was already in too deep, and his pride wouldn't let him back out of this one. No, he would stick this out, and play the pieces as to _win_. He was the professor after all, with cunning senses akin to Professor Moriarty. Of course, he would have to be careful, considering the female Sherlock Holmes he was up against…

_Easy does it, tiger_, he repeated to himself. _Just lead the blind into the pit and you'll get her right where you want her. _All he had to do was keep his self-control under control and everything would go smoothly.

To end the silence and the staring contest between the two of them, Sasuke cleared his throat. "Well then, where to?"

In the answer to her questions, she curled the corner of her lip, grabbed her coat off of a coat hanger, closed and locked the door behind her, and proceeded to click away on her heels to his car. "I'll lead the way."

**~.:::.~**

"No."

"Uchiha-sensei…"

"What?"

"C'mon, just try it."

He eyed the sorry-excuse for a floating car with a grimace. "I already ride one death trap."

She sighed and poked at the cushiony-tire-things surrounding the bumper car. "It's pretty safe compared to the normal 'death traps,'" she said, amusement painting her voice. "C'mon, it's fun!" She flashed him a smile. "I'll treat you to tea afterwards."

Her effort to reach out to him was left unnoticed; Sasuke took to glaring at the bumper cars again. Five minutes in the amusement park, and already Sasuke seemed to be determined not to have a good time.

"Uchiha-sensei, how old are you?"

"Twenty-four," he answered curtly as he walked away from the bumper car arena.

Sakura followed him, giggling behind her hand. "Jeez, three years my senior and you pout like a two-year-old." She finally caught up with him, managing to find a brisk pace as to walk side-by-side with him. "At this rate, I might have to keep calling you Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke stopped and stared after her until she realized he wasn't walking and turned around.

She gave him a cheeky smile. "What's wrong, Sasuke-kun?"

The frown on his face deepened before he looked over his shoulder at her. "Stop calling me that."

Under normal circumstances, Sakura had the self-control and the maturity to stop when someone said stop. But managing to bring her professor to an amusement park on a first date seemed to get to her head, and she just couldn't seem to help herself. "Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun!" She giggled again.

Sasuke could only stare at her, his eyes narrowed. Then, he closed his eyes and shook his head once. "You know what," he said, walking briskly toward the parking lot, "I knew this would have been a bad idea." He had barely enough self-control not to snap at her when she called for him to wait. Without turning around to look at her (because if he did, he didn't know _what_ he would say to her), Sasuke said without preamble, "We're leaving."

Sakura, a little breathless from running for him, managed to step around to look at him. She gave him a stern look. "No, we're not." Her eyes softened when he glared at her. She huffed out a sigh before looking straight up in his face. "Look, I'm sorry about teasing you; I'm not purposely trying to make you mad."

His silence and stern eyes told her to go on.

She sharply inhaled and slumped her shoulders. "Just… I'm trying to make an effort here."

He snorted. "Yeah, an effort to push a label on me that says I'm the world's biggest pervert."

"No! I'm trying to get to know you." She shifted her weight, looking up at him through her eyelashes. "The least you could do is to try to get to know me back."

Sasuke eyed her, still suspicious. He weighed the situation in his head. He knew for sure she was still not going to let go of her theory that _he_, Uchiha Sasuke, was author of _Icha Icha_ under the penname Jiraiya. This date was a window of opportunity to see if he could slip up any information at all and as an opportunity to make him fall for her, and thus be willing to give her all information of his literary life and risk his beautiful life of anonymity.

However, there was also a possibility in which Sakura would fall in love with _him_. If that happened, even if Sakura figured out his identity, she would be too smitten with him to actually have enough guts to sell him out to the media.

And it didn't hurt the fact that Sasuke would still have inspiration for his next novel. His dates with her would provide textual, relationship-based research for his novel and his own sexual experiences would finish the rest of the novel. If Sakura got sexually involved with him (after all, they had made a deal and she didn't seem to want to back out), it would just be one more inspiration for the series.

Then, he'd be done with her for good.

The only thing he had to watch out for was his own feelings and desires for her.

Sasuke sighed. "I suppose I should try to get acquainted with my star student."

Her rosy lips parted, revealing straight rows of white teeth. Sakura didn't notice Sasuke's breath hitch. "That's the spirit. Now then," she said, taking his hand and tugging him over to a dangerous-looking ride that turned people upside down, "let's try this one!"

Sasuke hoped his gulp wasn't audible.

**~.:::.~**

Sasuke shook his head and smirked at her. "I don't believe you."

Sakura nodded vigorously. "Yeah huh! They say that all the girls that go into that haunted house never come out," she said, pointing to the haunted house of the amusement park.

It was a tall, well-crafted piece of architecture, all right, and looked completely out of place. In contrast to the happy, colored amusement park, the house was tall, ominous, and seemed to be devoid of color because it _wanted_ to be. The sky and aura around it seemed dark and gray. The gargoyles hanging onto the cathedral-like building seemed to be moving their eyes; crows and ravens alike gathered upon the balcony, staring down at the amusement park go-ers as if daring them to come closer before they scared them away with a _Cuh-caw!_ and a flurry of flapping. The house itself seemed to breathe, exhaling dust and grime while inhaling groups of brave customers who handed their tickets—and possibly their souls—to the workers dressed as monsters from nightmares at the front of the house.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The haunted house is just a gimmick, and the rumor was probably something stupid started by girls who were too scared of a stupid piece of fancy cardboard."

"Oh yeah? Why don't _you_ try to make it out of there alive?"

Sasuke eyed a couple walking past the house, stopping to look at it in horrified fascination, eying the unwelcoming, spear-like fence and the garden of gravestones and its goosebump-raising mist that seemed to take form of people. When the woman stepped back after giving her camera to her partner and prepared to pose, two pairs of arms and a bloodthirsty growl shot from the mist at her. The couple screamed and the woman hit the arms with her purse—breaking off one of the limbs in the process. They hurried away as fast as they could, the male attempting to comfort her from the frightening experience as she shivered, her face as pale as the ghost Sasuke could still see was roaming the garden of tombstones.

He couldn't help but swallow and curse himself for having a complicated case of verbal diarrhea.

As if Sakura had seen the way his palms sweated or the way that he swallowed the lump of fear in his throat, she smirked, mirroring one of his own before she said, "You aren't _scared_, are you, sensei?"

At her taunt, Sasuke bristled. "Only an idiot would be afraid of something like that."

Sakura hummed, satisfied at the way she poked his pride. "Well then, I guess you wouldn't object to going in there then."

"Sure," Sasuke shot back. "Since you're so confident of yourself, you should come with me."

They glared at each other, daggers of visible tension collecting between their eyes as they attempted to murder each other visually. It was a stalemate once again.

"Fine," Sakura bit out. She marched straight up to the ticket stand and shoved her tickets in front of the costumed worker's face. "Here. We want to go into the haunted house."

The worker—obviously in love with his job—gave Sakura a crooked, messy, red-lipped smile. His crooked yellow teeth and the mischievous gleam in his eyes sent her into a shuddering frenzy. The man looked like the Joker and the Mad Hatter's baby. "You aren't afraid, little girl?" he rasped. The rabbit ears on his tattered purple top hat twitched in excitement. "Why, you're so brave! Don't you know that girls who come in here never make it out _alive_?"

Okay—his raspy voice and his creepy smile? Sakura could handle that. But when he mentioned the rumor, she thought of screwing her pride and _bolting_. Maybe go have an embarrassment ride on the kiddie roller coaster or something. Anything—but this house.

Before she could drop her tickets and run the other way, she felt a warm arm encircling her waist.

"She doesn't have to be scared; she's with me."

Sakura looked up at Sasuke, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear, shock, embarrassment, and frustration.

He shifted his gaze from the worker to her and gave her a look that made her blame her beating heart on the fear of going into the haunted house and possibly never coming out alive. "It's okay, Sakura," he said as he stroked her side in an attempt to calm her down.

The combination of him stroking her waist and calling her name only made her heart beat faster.

"You'll be okay," Sasuke said before he turned back to the worker, who seemed utterly unmoved by the entire display.

"You gettin' in the house or not?" he questioned rather coolly as he cocked an amused eyebrow at Sakura.

Sasuke merely handed him their tickets.

"Alrighty then!" said the Joker/Mad Hatter baby as he eagerly took the tickets and swallowed them as if they were spaghetti. "Since you two are the only ones here for now and the house seems to have scared most people away, you are going to be the next group. Now then," he said, nodding once, satisfied with his decision, "the rules. You can run, you can scream (in fact, it's recommended), but you cannot, under any circumstances, hurt the members of the house if you are afraid. The members will not touch you, maim you, or hurt you in any circumstances. The only thing they will do is get super close to you"—he demonstrated by shoving his face extraordinarily close to Sakura's face and giving her a raspy chuckle, only a millimeter away from her nose—"like this!"

Sakura jumped back into Sasuke and nearly elbowed the creepy worker in the face before she forced herself to reconsider; her action would definitely bring on some unwanted security guards.

The worker gave another raspy laugh before he continued. "It's going to be dark in there and claustrophobic, so if you are any of those things, consider leaving now." His eyes held that mischievous gleam once more. "If you happen to get scared in there and need an escort out, miss, be sure to scream 'Game Master' over and over—else we won't be able to differentiate from your normal screams and you might end up stuck in there." Another laugh. "Now then, your goal is to find the way out of the house. Doors will open and lead you along the way and a nice storyline will be there for your entertainment. When you solve the mystery of each mini storyline, doors will open for you; if you follow them, they'll guarantee your way out. Try not to give up or there _will_ be dire consequences." The Joker part of him seemed to come out as he gave her _the smile_ again. "Anyhoo, have fun!"

The gates opened by themselves, and a cobblestone road unfolded itself for them. As they made their way up toward the stairs of the cathedral-sized haunted house, an ominous statue stood at the front door, one that Sakura recognized from her readings was a Buddhist statue that looked over the spirits of aborted children and dead babies.

How fun was _this_ going to be?

Sasuke stood at the giant steps of the house. He felt a little guilty for pulling her along, seeing how she dropped the entire act of fear she had kept only for the sake of her own pride. She was scared.

And he felt like it was his fault.

He sighed, then turned to look at her, hoping she was still reasonably emotionally stable.

And she seemed to be, but just barely. Sakura stood there, two steps behind him, fidgeting with her fingers. Her eyes looked up at him, green and watery with tears of fear. Her bottom lip was red with her gnawing. She was trembling like a lost puppy.

It hurt him to see her so scared.

Without thinking, he offered his hand out to her.

Her eyes widened before she hesitantly placed her palm onto his and wrapped her fingers around his much larger hand.

"Don't worry," Sasuke said again. "We'll get through this, okay?" His last words would echo throughout Sakura's mind: "I'll protect you."

**~.:::.~**

**author's note:** Wah~! Wow, development is going fast! These two are still at their battle of the wits, and the fight is fierce! But what's this? Sasuke and Sakura not only have to fight over Sasuke's "true" identity, but against their own feelings as well?

Anyways—the haunted house thing is going to be based on Miyazaki and his magic cinematography, so just so you guys have a heads up. ^_^

_Answering anonymous reviews:_

**Erin:** Hey! I'm glad you like it so far. ^_^ It's dedicated for you, so I'm glad you kept up with the reading. Miss you, too, dearie. D:

**Cattthecandybandit:** Thanks so much. I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thank you for following!

**Zoe:** I realized I hadn't answered your review to my first chapter! (_laughs_) Anyway, thanks. :) It's always nice to get encouraging remarks from great readers like you. ^_^

**review?**


	4. By Its Development

**Disclaimer: **don't own Naruto... (sigh)… or Miyazaki's ideas. Q_Q

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 4**

**By Its Development**

**-xxx-**

Sakura had never been one for scary things. She could face an entire academic league with a speech that could blow away an entire crowd with the power of a bazooka; she could run (or walk) a marathon for the sake of breast cancer and even have the strength to jump for joy afterward; heck, right now, she was determined and confident enough to plan to seduce her psychology professor who she was absolutely, positively certain was her favorite erotica writer.

But scary things, she could not handle. She always walked out of scary movies with fists so tight and white it looked like she turned into one of the ghosts she had seen. When she was little, she cried whenever she saw witches and vampires. In college, she nearly vomited when she saw her friend's gory graphic design for an adult cartoon—and she hated Halloween with a passion.

And at the moment, she was a good chance away from hyperventilating as she walked up the steps of the haunted house, all of her pride forgotten as she relented to squeezing the life out of her psychology professor's hand.

It was a long ways up the steps, each one of the cobblestoned steps echoing with their footsteps like the death toll of a grandfather clock. With the mist before them and the mist behind them, it was hard to tell if they were even making progress.

She didn't notice her own tightening grip on Sasuke's hand.

Sasuke could feel his guilt grow like a ravenous weed. He tried to swallow it down, but the vegetable of a guilt seemed to stay lodged in his windpipe. He settled for simply giving her a reassuring squeeze, internally sighing when he felt her relax. Now then, if only he could make sure they could get through the entire thing without—

His thoughts didn't finish. A vicious _Crack!_ ripped through the air—and where what should have been the next steps of the cobblestone path disappeared into the black hole in the floor. The hole, like its namesake in space, treated everything around it like the victims of vacuums, slurping things in and refusing to regurgitate anything out. It crawled toward the two of them, ripping the cobblestone walk away from their feet in spaghetti strips.

Sasuke's ears were filled with the sound of nothingness and Sakura's screaming as the black hole consumed them both.

Surprisingly, it didn't rip them to shreds as it did to the walkway. They fell—completely whole in their bodies, mind you—narrowly escaping the harsh breathing and gleaming teeth of monsters that nearly got them by a hair of an inch, reaching out from them in their dark corners to lash out with their arms in quick, firm strikes.

He was glad that the sound of the wind whistling past his ears partially blocked Sakura's shrieks of fear.

Sakura couldn't tell the difference. She knew she was screaming, she knew her feet weren't holding fast to anything any time soon—and she _definitely_ knew there were monster arms, fast as lightning, that were out to get her and bring them to their master. Her heart pounded in her chest so hard that she felt like it was going to jump out of her mouth and abandon her in this freefalling hellhole.

'_Please,_' she thought, squeezing her eyes shut—after all, it would probably look the same even with her eyes open—, '_please, someone, end this fast._' She waited, bracing herself for the impact of skeleton against body and the pain of cracked bones and torn muscle tissue.

But it never came.

Instead, they stopped mid-fall, the darkness beneath them cushioning them.

Sakura turned her head, feeling the hairs on her scalp floating in the darkness. Experimentally, she moved her free hand around and wriggled her legs. Her eyes widened, fascinated and intrigued like a scientist looking at a new species. It felt as if she were swimming rather than floating in darkness. Sasuke's hand squeezed hers in the darkness as if to tell her he found out the same thing.

"Hey," she heard from where Sasuke held her hand, "look up there."

A wave of relief washed through her when she saw the speck of promising light. "Thank Kami," she breathed, hoping that the terrifying experience was ending as soon as it began.

With their hands still clasped together—the only thing reassuring each of them that the other was still right beside them—, they edged through the darkness toward the speck of light.

It came toward them more quickly than they had expected, shoving them through an intense burst of light as the darkness burped them out, sending them tumbling onto a hard patch of grass.

Sakura winced and rubbed her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Man, that landing did something sore to her ass. It was a good thing she landed on something soft.

Whatever was underneath her, however, stirred and groaned.

In a very _male_ voice.

Sakura's eyes shot open wide. She felt her mouth do the same as she stared down at Sasuke.

Who she was currently straddling.

Heat washed across her cheeks when she saw him rub his messy, spiky hair with a dirty hand and open his dark eyes to stare up at her.

She really couldn't stand it when he stared at her like that—blank face and everything, as if he had expected this.

Slowly, she pulled away from him, standing up and brushing herself off before offering a silent hand to help him up, an awkward, sheepish smile on her face.

He stared at it for a while, took it, and grunted as he stood up and brushed himself off.

"Erm, sorry," she said, brushing the side of her upper arm and looking anywhere _but_ him. After a moment of silence, she felt incredibly awkward with him just standing there staring at her.

'_You'd rather he be underneath you, wouldn't you, Sakura?_' whispered a dirty voice in the back of her mind. The thought of him, his strong thighs trapped between hers, the fleeting feeling of his firm chest and tight abs rippling underneath her fingertips and clenching as her hands fluttered across his muscles—and that _groan_ in his smooth, baritone voice that would follow suit…

The thought of it all was enough to make her flush again—she couldn't damn well tell herself that her professor _wasn't_ as attractive as he was.

He turned away only a few seconds after that thought passed through her head, as if he could hear it and was embarrassed to hear himself in her mind.

Just before she could apologize again, she felt a drop of rain plop straight onto her nose. Blinking once, twice, she looked up, feeling more upon her brow now in a more insistent manner. Before she could voice her confusion, Sakura felt Sasuke grab her hand.

"Come on," he said, his voice thick and gruff as he pulled her into the new scene they had jumped into.

It was urban and dark, and a bus stop (innocent-looking enough) was right up ahead.

The only thing that made Sakura tense were the two figures standing next to the bus stop sign, umbrellas hiding their faces.

The two figures turned toward them first, synchronized in their pivotal motion. To Sakura's relief, it was only a girl and a cute-looking, but quite large and gray animal that seemed to resemble a raccoon without its mask and a gerbil with thin ears. When she and Sasuke approached, the gray animal gave them a smile that spanned across its entire face. It was cute, the furry thing, and the girl with a head of dark pixie-hair beside him, her cheeks flush and her nose rosy from the rain.

When the little girl lay eyes on her, she gave a smile to her, just as large as that of her furry friend. "_Ohayo, onee-chan, onii-chan!_" she said, raising her umbrella as if it were a top hat. "My friend and I are off to find my sister. Will you help us?"

Sasuke felt his intuition flicker. Something _really_ didn't feel right. He shifted his weight and flicked his eyes over to Sakura. She was probably catching on right now, too—

"_Hai!_" Sakura chirped, smiling broadly at the girl. "I'd love to help you, _imouto_!"

Sasuke couldn't help but facepalm. '_We're doomed._'

"Hooray!" said the girl. "Now we just need to wait for—oh, never mind, there it is!"

Following the pointed finger of the younger girl, the two of them watched as a large cat skidded to a stop in front of them, its eyes wide and lighting the road ahead. Sasuke's breath caught in his throat. It wasn't just a cat, he realized as one of its windows grew larger on the side of it with a magnetic sound, growing into a door.

It was a cat_bus_.

Sasuke swallowed, watching helplessly as Sakura beckoned for him to follow her into the nekobus. How ridiculous he must have looked, cautiously stepping onto fuzzy steps into a multi-legged, bus-sized cat!

He looked around the bus as he took his seat beside Sakura. There were walls and windows similar to those of a bus, only with fringes of orange cat hair; the only difference was that the seats were arranged quite close to the windows, leaving a large open space in the middle of the bus. The seats were comfortable, however, so Sasuke couldn't really complain. He watched as the little girl—not even bothering to sit herself down—chattered away between Sakura and her large furry friend, exchanging grins and laughs galore. He didn't realize his own eyes softening when he saw Sakura play patty-cake with the little girl.

"What's your name, _imouto_?" Sakura asked as she brushed some of the little girl's hair out of her eyes.

The little girl grinned. "Satsuki," she answered promptly, "and my little sister's name is Mei. We're trying to look for her. The last time I saw her, we were having a bad argument, but then afterward…"

Sasuke's attention drifted away from their conversation. Little Satsuki was searching for her little sister, and Sakura seemed to take the place of an older sister for Satsuki. It made him kind of jealous, that the little girl Mei still had such a caring older sibling…

Wait. Sasuke shifted his gaze back to Satsuki again as she jumped about with her animal friend. His eyes widened; he shuddered internally before he leaned closer to Sakura.

"What are you doing, sensei?" Sakura hissed, noticing the proximity between them was a little too close for her liking and breathing space. She could faintly smell his cologne. When he breathed, his breath graced her ear and neck, making her acutely aware their proximity.

She heard Sasuke swallow thickly as if he knew the effects of their closeness. "Satsuki," he said, lowly so that the two before them could not hear, "she doesn't have a shadow."

Sakura's blood froze. The shivers she had to suppress were no longer those caused by Sasuke. She inhaled sharply when she confirmed Sasuke's observation.

There, where what should have been the shadows underneath Satsuki's foot and her own shadow, was nothing. The lights inside of the cat should have casted some sort of shadow—in fact, she could see Sasuke's shadow upon her lap. The mere thought of it made Sakura's heart pound all over again.

The nekobus seemed to race, the plants, and trees and flowers outside seemed to whistle in the wind. Sakura could hear a song, coming from the nekobus as it dashed through the forest.

"_**Neko basu wa Kaze o yobu bu-bu-**_

_**Amagu mo kaminari futtobasu**_

_**Notta okyaku wa youki na obake…**_**"**

The last line caught Sakura by the throat.

_Notta okyaku wa youki na obake…_

She turned her head to Sasuke, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes completely wide. " 'Those who ride are cheerful ghosts,' " she repeated.

"_Onee-chan_!"

Their eyes shot toward the little girl who was now holding onto a seat nearby, peering down at Sakura with wide, teary eyes.

"Onee-chan," she repeated, "My troll forest friend told me that you'd help me find my little sister." Tears began to roll down her face. "Where's my little sister? Mei, who went missing by the lake?"

Sakura and Sasuke watched in horror as the tears accumulated the color off of Satsuki's face.

"Mei can't swim, but Troll says that she's okay, she took the nekobus and that she's safe. Nekobus knows where she is!"

By now, Satsuki was translucent, the hands that she held over her face literally showing to the bone.

" 'Cheerful ghosts'… 'troll'…" Sakura's hands shook as she stifled a sob of horror. "Oh, my God…" Her eyes blurred with tears that felt the pressure of the situation. She looked at the sign that held the next bus stop—"Grave Road."

She was sitting on a catbus.

On a ride to hell.

With a ghost child.

And a shinigami.

The bus, the child, and the furry animal began to melt. Color seeped from them, their smiles slowly curved downward, their bodies concaved and distorted. Little white spirits—with black holes for eyes and a mouth—materialized, turning their heads slowly before jerking them back in place with a rattle.

She pointed to the furry forest friend, whose previous grin was encompassing his entire face. Her tongue was thick, but she couldn't help but try to repeat the monster's essence.

"To… toro," she said, knowing she had butchered the pronunciation of 'troll.' But she couldn't really give fucks when she was scared out of her mind.

She tried to keep from hyperventilating. She trembled, shook, sobbed. Her eyes widened when she saw the seat before her through her almost transparent hands. The only sign of her actually having hands was the moving air before her.

"_Help me, onee-chan!_"

" 'Those who ride are cheerful ghosts!' "

"_My little sister needs me!_"

Everything was too loud, too frightening, _too constricting_.

She squeezed her eyes shut and put her hands to her ears to block away the voices and the whistling wind and to reassure herself that her hands were still there. "Unng…" Sakura couldn't stop the tears anymore, nor the tremors. _Somebody,_ she thought, _anybody_.She jerked and gave a quick yelp when someone grabbed her hand away from the side of her head and pulled her to her feet. Without waiting for a preamble, she bolted toward a widening window of the nekobus—

"Sakura, _wait!_"

—and jumped.

She landed with a thud and rolled, feeling the jarring impact of skin, bone, and flesh against something hard for the second time that day. She panted, slowly pushing herself up, amazed at how okay she was—before she realized that she had landed headfirst onto Sasuke's arm.

He stared down at her, his breath coming out in harsh pants. To her surprise, he looked relieved.

Sakura slowly pushed herself off of him and swallowed. "Sorry," she said, her voice so low that she thought he probably didn't hear her.

She didn't have time to find out.

A growl behind them took her by surprise. Just in time as they turned their heads, they cried out in shock when a large, almost translucent, tall, black figure leaped down for them, crashing into the ground, its mouth—underneath a mask with a painted smile and curved slits for eyes—wide open and drooling for a meal. "_I'm so hungry!_"

When the spirit sprouted legs and began to make chase, the pair bolted, Sakura well ahead, running straight into a seemingly deserted red-lanterned district.

She felt her breath come quicker when she saw spirits appearing in food booths, cackling as they saw them run past. Shaking her head, she forced herself to get a grip. "It's only a bunch of creeps who want a rise out of you, Saks," she told herself over and over again. "Just focus on running away from the guy with the proverbial chainsaw!"

Meanwhile, Sasuke, managing to keep up with Sakura and a good hundred feet away from the raving, translucent spirit with sprouting legs, thought back. Why did the nekobus allow for them to get off? What exactly did they solve back there?

His eyes widened. '_I should have known_,' he thought with a smirk, quickening his speed so that he was side-by-side with Sakura. "Sakura," he said, quite breathless, "I know how we can get out of here."

"Great," she said with a pant, "I don't think I can take this anymore!" She squeaked when the thundering footsteps of the monster behind them drew closer and sped up. "Whatever it is, do it fast!"

He took a gulp of air. "Well, you know how you said the troll's name back there?"

"Uh-huh?" She dodged a rock the size of her head that skidded into their path.

"That's it: _names_." One corner of his lips twitched. "Saying the names of these monsters is the key to setting us free!"

She was barely listening, only feeling the burn in her muscles—but she knew she couldn't afford to slow down. She turned to Sasuke, panting her life out. "But I totally screwed up that troll's name back there! It was on a total _accident_!" She groaned when she had to jump over a root. "Damn it, my legs hurt."

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder. Well, if she could do it, maybe he could, too. "Keep running."

"Ah, gee, thanks for telling me that, Uchiha, I wouldn't have thought to run from a flesh-hungry monster my—"

"God, woman, _shh_ and make sure we don't crash into anything!" He turned to look over his shoulder again at the monster. Mask. Painted smile. Black translucence…

Well, here goes nothing. "Hey, No-Face!" he shouted over his shoulder. "You… you, uh, got no face!"

The sound of his attempt at finding a name for the monster left Sakura bristling. Either Sasuke was trying very hard to sound completely uncreative to dissipate any of her suspicions against him or he really _was_ an idiotic, dull mess.

But before she could share her thoughts with him, she heard the monster behind her howl and the ground she was running on dematerialized before her eyes. She tried skidding to a stop, but that would only lead to her face skidding across the pavement.

So, she could only settle to plummeting off the edge of the de-materializing cliff. As she prepared to fall, she watched with wide eyes as her hands began to become more and more transparent. She could only watch in horror as she began to disappear like the ground beneath her. "I'm disappearing," she said before her voice rose in volume, "_I'm disappearing!_"

Hands came around and grasped hers.

Her head jerked around to stare over her shoulder at her sensei, whose eyes were still dark and calm as ever. "You're not disappearing," he murmured, brushing her hands with his as if to let her feel the solidness of her hands against his. "Keep walking. The ground didn't disappear. It's only an illusion."

When she stared down, hoping he was right, she only saw flames and amorphous black, tar-like humanoids several miles below them. She swallowed harshly.

"Straighten your legs and keep walking," he urged. "I'll hold onto your hands. They're still here."

She still couldn't believe her eyes as she stared down at the spectacle below them, her feet looking as if they were walking upon air. '_Special effects_,' she reminded herself. '_They're just… really good special effects_.' She gave a hesitant smile over her shoulder at him. "They look like a pile of tar waste."

"Look." Sasuke's breath against her temple felt warm and welcoming to Sakura in such a chill-inducing place. "Light."

And indeed, there was light at the end of a tunnel of palpable darkness.

When they made it out of the haunted house, their hands still together and the darkness gone behind them, Sakura finally gave a genuine smile that day—and found another darkness all together.

**~.:::.~**

"Sakura—_baka_, wake up." Poke. Poke, _poke_.

She brushed away the insistent finger against her cheek and rolled onto a side that was much more comfortable for laying on, snuggling her head into a fleshy pillow.

Wait.

_Fleshy_ pillow?

Her eyes, as she cracked them open, adjusted to the bright sun as she blinked twice, only to find the shadow of a face looming over hers. "Uh… Uchiha-sensei?"

"You passed out, stupid."

Back to his old self again, she internally sighed. After all that hand-holding and straddling in the haunted house…

She mentally shook her head. God! Why was she even _thinking _about that anymore? Obviously that hadn't meant anything to him, so why should she even _bother_? Besides, she was on a mission; she couldn't let him distract her from what she was trying to prove.

Of course, as she continued with her mental self-scolding, she never bothered to ask herself why she even needed to _think_ about whether the events mattered to him or not, or why (when she thought about him not caring) it made her heart pound painfully in her chest.

"My thighs hurt, Pinky. Get off."

She _hmph_-ed at him and sat up—realizing she had to try and keep her balance seeing as they were on a bench—anyway, pushing his face out of the way. "Your thighs are too squishy for a man's anyway, Uchiha-sensei." She pulled her knees to her chest and pouted, glad she was facing away from him else she'd have to endure more of his teasing.

Sasuke stared at her back and her hunched-over form and gave a small twitch of the corner of his lip. He wasn't an idiot on the most part; he could feel the waves of anger radiating from her, probably from the way he acted just after they had gotten out of the haunted house when back there he had tried to comfort her as best he could (which, he fervently told himself, was due to the _guilt_ that he felt!). "You survived the haunted house," he said for her.

She straightened at his statement before she turned herself around to smile at the ground. "Yeah," she said, "I did." She knew that if he wasn't there, she'd probably still be a pile of emotional distress on the nekobus.

Sasuke's mind flew back to the way she blindly and desperately reached for him in the dark, the way she panicked and then relaxed when he was there. He exhaled softly, and before he knew what he was doing, his hand was upon her head, rubbing gently, taking both of them by surprise. "Well played, Sakura."

She stared at him, her green eyes wide before she smiled at him, not realizing how she caught him off guard and out of breath. "Thanks, Uchiha-sensei."

"Please. Call me Sasuke."

**~.:::.~**

**author's note: **Ooh~ looks like it's getting a little hot in here! Lust seems to be evident in the air like palpable darkness or sexual tension.

Probably the former. XD But they're growing close! How will this affect both of their plans? Will they be able to calculate things with professional vigor, or will they fall into the other's traps?

Onto a small explanation segment:

.:::: In Japanese folklore, trolls are part of the shinigami world. Inspiration for the deviant Totoro came from the urban legend (which, by the way, is not true. Carry on with your happy Totoro minds :D). If you're curious about what the Totoro Urban Legend is, just google "totoro urban legend" and click away!

Can you guess the other Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films I featured? ;) I had some hints in the words I was using as a transition from one stage of the Miyazaki films to the next. There are three films total! They're my top three favorites; feel free to drop in a review stating your own faves!


	5. By Its Unreliable Narrator

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note: **Hey! Long time, no written see! Sorry about not updating any of my stories (uwah, I know, I'm horrible oTL), but I've been taking my own psychology class, so that should probably help with the authenticity of the story. Took me a long time to research psychological terms (i.e., the entire school yeah, ha-ha), but I'm back.

Relatively.

The pacing of this is going to speed up a little, mostly because of some time skips and the fact that I don't want to drag this on for more than it should with potential subplots and whatnot. Anyways, enjoy!

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 5**

**By Its Unreliable Narrator**

**-xxx-**

"Sensei, don't you think it's about time that you drop all the school stuff and spend time with me?"

Sakura twirled her finger around the cord of his phone as she sat on his desk, her back to him.

Knowingly giving Sasuke a rather good view of her shapely bottom.

Two weeks had passed, and their bet was still going strong. Every day after class or whenever she had the time, Sakura would stop by his desk and pester him (at least, that's what she liked to call it) until he gave in to her feisty demands. Under normal circumstances, she would've felt guilty and stricken with embarrassment if she ever felt like she forced a man into going out with her, as if she were romantically raping him.

But, of course, Sasuke wasn't meant to be a romantic interest—even if those dark eyes of his seemed to glue her to his lectures…

And she—as much as she hated to admit it—kind of _enjoyed_ bothering him. She had never actually been the kind of girl to chase after guys, after being drowned in studies since high school. The only time she ever got remotely close to chasing after a kid she liked was when she gave an anonymous Valentine to some obscure middle school classmate. Chasing after Sasuke was refreshing and made her tingle with excitement.

Of course, (she mentally cleared her throat) the only kind of chasing she was doing here was for _purely_ educational, factual, journalistic purposes.

Yes.

_Only those._

Sasuke's snort brought her back to reality. "What, you mean like, take a break?" _Click, clack_. "If you haven't noticed, I work as a psychology professor. It's kind of a job, you could almost say."

Sakura frowned. "I don't need your sarcasm, Sasuke," she grumbled, poking him in the forehead and laughing when he swatted her hand away.

"Don't patronize your professor then. And I told you to call me 'sensei' at school."

She huffed. "But Uchiha-sensei, I never do anything in your class, and your lectures are _so_ boring!" she said, mimicking that one girl who always liked to make fun of Sasuke during class.

Sasuke glanced up from the screen, his fingers never faltering. "Other people will be coming in soon. Go make yourself useful and read the notes to prep for my next lecture during the next session."

**-xxx-**

_"Ung!"_

_ Sloshing sounds filled the air. _

_ "Aah… yes, right there…"_

_ His fingers pumped increasingly rapidly into her core. He stroked himself alongside her, groaning in unrivaled pleasure. "Come on, baby," he hissed, "Gimme what I want, and I'll give it to ya." He ripped his fingers out of her core and slid his hardened cock between the folds, dragging it to and fro, slowly, teasingly, growling as he heard her cries of ecstasy every time he tapped his tip against her clit…_

Sasuke scrolled past his newest excerpt and wrinkled his nose. Despite his facial expression, he wanted to uncharacteristically cry tears of joy. '_It's pretty good_,' he told himself, rereading the last passage, feeling the tingle of excitement shape his spine as he revisited the heroine's steamy situation; she was cornered in an alleyway by her new male participant, and decided that being a bit more adventurous might do her a bit of good.

He could almost hear the perverted choir within him chime in a twelve-part hymn for his nearly completed work of art.

He took off his glasses and set them down, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighed.

_Nearly_ completed.

Sasuke turned around in his swivel chair, swinging back and forth. He was running out of time. Although he still had plenty of time to write his novel, she still had time to find incriminating evidence of his alter ego, and what was more, Sasuke felt like he was making very slight progress in counter-seducing her to gain further "research" for future parts of his works.

During class, he caught all of her seemingly knowing looks, sending back a hint of smolder and smugness even as he continued to assume his bored tone with his lectures and put the majority of the class to sleep. He humored her on their dates, allowing her to touch his hand and laugh at his jokes, even though they weren't the funniest jokes in the world and were spoken out of mere, off-handed observation, and even went so far as to let her mess around with his hair one time.

But…

The hand he had covered his face with didn't hide the quirk of the ends of his lips. He could see Sakura behind his lids, smiling at him when he pointed out a butterfly, sarcastically remarking to him that _Yes, that's a butterfly, Sasuke, very nicely done_. He could see her quietly reading and studying for his quizzes during class, the casual way she tucked loose strands of her pink hair behind her ear without a hitch in her reading.

He sat up and shook his head. It was this damn mere exposure effect he had caught himself in. Seeing her on a daily basis would only lead him vulnerable to the off-chance that maybe—_just maybe_—she might be able to wrap him around her little finger sooner than he could wrap her around his.

Sasuke had to win this. His next novel and his pride depended on this. He needed to hold off a little longer. He couldn't waver in his feelings—couldn't develop any for her either, not unless he wanted to become tied down to _her_.

He needed to step up his game if he was going to come out of this with his job and his pride still intact.

Rubbing his face once more and checking the status of his facial hair, Sasuke decided it was in his best interest to shave off the steadily growing garden on his chin and hobbled off to the restroom to find a clean razor.

**-xxx-**

Sakura huffed and threw herself back onto her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. She only stared at the half empty cup of tea she had by her bedside.

"What am I doing…" she whispered to herself. She clutched the pillow more tightly to her chest.

Time was ticking fast and she still hadn't found anything super-identity-revealing-ish.

Nothing even close to evidence.

She gritted her teeth. '_Yeah, Saks, good move. Let's bet your virginity that you can find out that this guy's a famous porn writer based on that one hunch you had that was entirely based on movies. That's definitely a great idea.'_

'_But you secretly _do_ want him, don't you?_' said a little voice inside her head. '_You want to see how he measures up. I mean, after that day at the amusement park and the couple of little dates after, we _know_ you want more than his pretty face._'

"I don't," she muttered to herself, grabbing the cup of tea off her nightstand and chugging it down.

She whispered it again when she went over to the sink to wash the cup. "I don't."

Climbing back into her bed, she buried her face into her pillow. She groaned and weakly punched her head board. "This isn't part of the plan."

Dragging herself out of bed, she grabbed her bag, grabbed her shoes, and ran out the door, hoping that she could convince herself how much she _wasn't_ beginning to enjoy her professor's presence.

**-xxx-**

The tap of chalk on the chalkboard echoed throughout the room. Sasuke drew a swift line underneath the words "COGNITIVE DISSONANCE" before he turned around to face the class, some of them half asleep already, a new record considering he still had yet to start the actual lecture.

Sasuke cleared his throat. "Today, class, we are going to be discussing the theory of cognitive dissonance. Does anyone know who developed this theory?"

An uncomfortable silence pervaded the classroom. No one bothered to raise their hands.

The lecture hall door creaked open. Sakura carefully tip-toed inside, hoping to not be noticed by anyone—

"Haruno-san, since you care to come late to my lectures all the time, do tell us who developed the cognitive dissonance theory."

She straightened and cursed herself for not reading the lecture notes beforehand like she normally did.

She just _had _to be distracted by other matters, didn't she?

She turned toward him, nervously staring back at all the people who turned around to regard her. Clearing her throat, she answered as calmly as she could, "Festinger and Leon?"

The corners of Sasuke's lips turned up. He walked toward one of end the classroom. "Festinger and _Carlsmith,_" he said, correcting her.

A couple of snickers went around the room at the poor girl's misfortune.

Watching her scurry to her normal spot near the back rows, he continued. "Can anyone else describe the experiment they created?"

"Was this the one where they made these guys do these really boring jobs and they got paid and the people who had to work had to go out and recruit other people and stuff?" said Naruto from the middle row.

"Correct." Sasuke stopped in the middle of the front of the room. "And the strange thing regarding their experiment was that those paid less money changed their attitude regarding their boring jobs, seeing their jobs as more fulfilling and even more fun. Can anyone care to explain the significance of this finding?"

Hinata raised her hand to speak. "I-I believe it was the idea that the students who were paid less didn't have as much financial motivation as the others did. They had two conflicting thoughts, one in which they thought that the job was boring, and the second in which they still had to recruit others and had to pretend as if the job was fun to do. B-Because they had less monetary incentive, the underpaid students rationalized their actions, claiming that they were doing this job _because_ it was fun rather than because they were getting paid."

Sasuke nodded and glanced up at Sakura, who was currently trying to become one with her desk. He smirked internally. "Very good, Hyuuga-san." He glanced up at the clock. "We're done with the lecture for today, so you're welcome to leave. Be sure to be prepared for the quiz next week."

With that said, the entire class seemed to stand up simultaneously and begin a smooth stream, bustling toward the outside of the lecture hall.

"Haruno-san," Sasuke called, halting her mid-escape. When she turned around to give him the stank-eye, he crooked a finger toward her in a Sasuke-esque, _come hither_ fashion.

"What?" she grumbled when she finally made her way over to his desk, ignoring the smirks of the passers-by.

Sasuke waited until all of his students filed out of the lecture hall before he took off his glasses and smirked at her. "How cold, Pinky. Don't you normally come up and bother me after class?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I don't have anything planned today, Sasuke. What, did you miss me or something?" She sat herself down at his desk and leaned forward to rest her elbows on his desk and balance her chin upon her hands, knowingly giving Sasuke a good look at her décolletage. She smirked to herself when she saw his Adam's apple bob slightly in his throat.

Sasuke strained to keep his eyes above her chest. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes. "Actually, Sakura, it seems you've been lacking in your studies recently."

She groaned. "Sasuke, I just answered you wrong that _one _time! I seriously just forgot to read the lecture notes—"

"Your last quiz score was pretty average, too, if I may say so myself," Sasuke said, rustling through a stack of papers.

Sakura bristled. "So I'll just study harder for the next one!"

Sasuke gave her a little half-smirk that left goosebumps prickling on her arms. "Actually, I have a better idea."

.

.

.

Sakura let out a heavy sigh; she felt like she was going to get an aneurysm from this. "Can you _not_ stare at me while I read?"

"Sakura, the deal was that I help you study," Sasuke said as he wiped his glasses with the front of his shirt before balancing them on the bridge of his nose again. "Else I'd have to cut off this idiotic game you're trying to play. You asked for this."

"Last time I checked, 'helping' wasn't the equivalent of 'staring stalkerishly while someone works.'" Her cheeks puffed up and out and her lip molded into a harsh little pout.

Sasuke rested his chin on his fist as he leaned against his desk, fighting his desire to yawn. It was long after his office hours, but it was about the only time Sasuke could provide to help Sakura study.

… of course, not that she needed it.

He knew very well that Sakura was completely capable of studying all her own and potentially teaching _him _something in his field of study. But if he were to stand by her, watch her, and practice some of his _own_ psychology on her…

Sasuke fought back the quirk of the corners of his lips.

Sakura stared out of the corner of her eye at this internal display playing on Sasuke's face. What was he thinking? Was he patronizing her by attempting to tutor her? Did he think she was in over her head when she said she found herself smart?

Anger flared within her when she considered those possibilities.

She mentally shook her head. '_No, he's smart enough not to underestimate me._' But why would he be doing this?

Gah, she couldn't think and study at the same time. She needed to focus! For now, she just needed to be wary of him.

"Sakura, your eyes haven't even read past the first paragraph yet."

"Sorry, sensei. I just got distracted."

Sasuke leaned closer to her, his chest almost enveloping her left side. She could feel the heat radiating from his body and his breath fanning her ear. "Here, you need to catch up to the lecture from today and read into tomorrow's."

She swallowed soundlessly and nodded, trying to negate the masculine smell wafting off his body she accidentally caught wind of when she sighed. "Right. Okay, so, cognitive dissonance theory was based off of Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment with the college students…" She scanned the paper. "Yada-yada, stuff we talked about in class." She looked up at him. "So it's basically having two conflicting ideas within your conscience."

"And what do we do with those conflicting ideas?" Sasuke's fingers grazed a student's paper, following along as he read. He gently took Sakura's hand (which happened to be in his line of reading) and moved it to another part of the desk before continuing to reread his paper, not missing the flinch that accompanied his touch when he moved her.

She wet her lips. "Uh, so we either rationalize one of the ideas, saying that what we did was right and there's no sense in getting upset, or we change our behavior to match our attitudes."

His eyes never left his paper. "That's the definition. Now give a scenario in which cognitive dissonance would occur."

Sakura stayed silent for a moment. It didn't particularly bother Sasuke, seeing as she probably took some time to think about one, so he didn't bother looking up from his paper.

Until he felt a hand stop his reading hand in its place.

Surprised, Sasuke turned to ask her just what the _hell_ she thought she was _doing_—

Her eyes stopped him in his tracks.

Half-lidded, darkened green eyes burned into him. Her petal-like lips were slightly open, her head tipped at an angle as she stared back at him.

He couldn't remember if he had forgotten to breathe.

"Sensei," she said, the word now bearing an even more erotic undertone than he had ever realized, "let's say the situation was that a student, who knows very well that it's completely and utterly improper to have relations with a teacher…"

"Continue," Sasuke prompted. He didn't move his gaze from hers, telling himself that he wouldn't step down from a challenge from _her_.

"Well, let's say that student, hypothetically speaking," she added quickly, "found that she was starting to have feelings for her professor."

"What would be the two conflicting ideas in this hypothetical situation, Sakura?" Sasuke murmured, his voice rumbling in his chest.

Sakura was sure by now that his chest wasn't bent on engulfing her left side, but the rest of her as well. "The idea in her mind that a student/professor relationship is unacceptable and the feelings she has for her professor."

"And how would she resolve her cognitive dissonance?"

She smiled up at him. "She can either make sure her behavior follows her attitude of 'a student/professor relationship is bad'…."

She drew a bit closer, her breath fanning his face now. He could even smell the freshness of her skin. "Or," she said, with so much softness in her voice that Sasuke had to strain his ears to hear her, "she can rationalize her feelings for him."

His eyes couldn't leave her lips. "How so?"

Slowly, she smiled up at him, a smile that warmed Sasuke up from the inside out the longer he stared at it. "By telling herself that he's one of the most amazing people she's ever met." He couldn't help but lean a little closer, watching her eyes grow more hooded, feeling her breath fan across his face again, so warm, so sweet. He brought his hand to her cheek to hold her still, to grace her face…

She shot up out of her seat.

The smile that was on her face when she made her speech grew like a weed across her face, growing more mischievous and devilish.

Sasuke stared up at her. "Sakura—?"

"Sorry, Sasuke, I forgot how late it is. Sorry if I kept you a little too long and thanks for the help!" Sakura bolted out of the room before Sasuke could say anything else to her.

Sasuke stared at the empty room before him and the door, now swinging to and fro on its hinges.

What had just _happened_?

He sat back in his swivel chair, mirroring the Thinker statue. He had done everything right—the right touches at the right time, the slow inclination of his body towards her—and yet, _she_ had managed to turn the tables around on him.

She saw right through him from the start.

Sasuke clenched his hand into a tight fist and let it drop onto his desk with a solid thud. He scowled. "Damn it."

**-xxx-**

The moment he moved her hand she had already caught on to what he had planned. Of _course_ she knew he would've done that! Why hadn't she seen through it at the beginning of the stupid "tutoring session," when he had obviously been putting "the moves" on her? He had planned to one-up her, to make her fall before he did.

But hubris always had a price to pay—she was going to win.

"See, Ino," Sakura said as she shoveled more instant mac-n-cheese into her mouth, "you don't have to worry about me. I saw right through it." She grinned at her roommate. "He's not getting inspiration out of this girl."

Ino ran a hand through her bangs and frowned. "I don't know, Saks. I don't think this is a game anymore, you know?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked as she spooned more cheesy goodness into her mouth.

Ino huffed. "I mean, you're starting to get into this too deep. This isn't just your cherry we're talking about now, this is about you, kiddo. _You_ might get hurt because you can't see how far you're in."

_Knock, knock_.

"I'll get it!" Sakura shot up from the couch, much too eager to get away from Ino's speech (which was bound to ramble down into examples from her on-and-off relationship with Shikamaru now that Temari was semi-out of the picture).

She ran to the door, yanking it open, thinking that it was probably some neighbor asking them if they had extra toothpaste or something—

She blinked. "Sensei?"

There he stood in the middle of her doorway, clothes slightly rumpled, breathing harshly as if he had run all the way up the building's stairs to her dorm room. She couldn't help but admire the way his hair was slightly skewed and how he towered over her with his powerful presence.

"What are you—?"

"You left something in my office," he said, cutting her off.

She stared at him as if he were braiding his armpit hairs. "Can't this wa—"

Lips.

That was the only thought she had in her head close to comprehending the situation at hand.

Lips, hot breath, hands, a rock hard body against her, leaning against her, and soon tongue, teeth, and even more heat ensued. Slowly, he grew gentler, his fingers stroking the side of her face as he gave her one last, soft, sweet kiss and pulled back, watching as she steadied herself against the door frame, her chest still heaving.

He leaned back into her, his breath ghosting the shell of her ear.

She couldn't help but tremble.

"Good night, _Sakura_," he murmured before planting a soft kiss against her cheek. "And that's _Sasuke_ to you."

With that, he left her there in the middle of her doorway, her jaw basically groveling on the floor, silently demanding an explanation.

Ino blurted out the single thought, raging in Sakura's mind: "What the fuck was _that_?"

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** Bwahahah! I know, that's cruel. But hey, some development happened right? Anyways, I once again, sincerely apologize for making you guys wait so long, but it's almost the end of the school year, and I am graduating! Yay!

I have yet to complete all the crap that we're required to do before entering college, but I'll get to it sooner or later.

Review? c:


	6. By Its Inner Conflict

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Naruto.

**Author's Note: **I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter with an unrelenting case of writer's block, even after gaining some sort of inspiration from my boyfriend. But I had fun writing this while listening to Safety Suit's _What If_ and _Find a Way_ (which has helped me write _**Breaking Their Wings**_). I had to binge hardcore on a couple dozen pots of jasmine tea (_laughs_).

As a further note, all the psychology lectures thus far are actual things I've learned from my psych class I took! So you know—while you're caught up in psych student/psych prof drama between Sakura and Sasuke, you're also, in a way, taking Sasuke's "psych class," haha. Just a thought.

Anyways:

_Replying to the anonymous reviews_:

**-Guest**_: _Thank you! I'm glad you like it! c:

**-Erin: **Ha-ha, I'm glad I finished another chapter! Here's another one for you. Thanks so much for reading my stories. *fans self*

**-SMILE:** Here's the update you asked for! Their relationship is going to develop rather quickly with how fast their brains are working. I just hope that the fast pace doesn't ruin anything in terms of the pacing of the entire story.

**-cutecookiechick:** Yeah, I couldn't believed that he kissed her either. ;) But now you get to find out why~.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 6**

**By Its Inner Conflict**

**-xxx-**

Sasuke slammed the door behind him when he came home. Lifting his thumb to his lips, he trailed its length along his bottom lip, still feeling the kiss he and Sakura shared. The petal pink lips he had had his eyes on since the beginning of the quarter were about as plush and bold as he imagined them to be.

The corner of his lip quirked. He made his way to the kitchen to grab a snack. The game he and Sakura were playing seemed to get more and more interesting every passing hour. Outsmarting her was a challenge that seemed to throw lava on his blood and almost made him feel—dare he say it—youthful and alive. She always tried to be one step ahead of him, thinking that she could undermine her professor's intelligence with her own, which was budding but not quick to respond to the spontaneity of his actions—as shown tonight.

Sakura tried to pull some psychological attraction theory with him—he turned it right around with some straightforward, old-fashioned go-get-her moves.

Sasuke smirked and tossed the tomato he found browsing through his refrigerator, catching it in his other hand. He settled the score between them and then some. She may have planned to be a cock tease towards him during their lesson plan, but he knew she didn't expect him to pull such a direct move as he had earlier on tonight.

After taking a couple of victory spins around in his swivel chair, Sasuke slowed down to an exaggerated halt, staring at his ceiling fan. Truth be told, even _he_ didn't expect to do something like that. After being caught in a daze with that teasing little stunt of hers, he found his legs moving forward for him, getting him into his car, climbing up those stairs, walking up to that door…

He closed his eyes and felt her lips on his again.

But damn.

That one kiss was warm, soft, breathy and every bit of attractive as the woman he had between his fingertips in that moment. In a barrage of passion, he felt an enticing array of tongue, teeth, and lips. He didn't even know he had it in him to maneuver that well.

And what else was for sure—he knew that if it happened again, hot kisses, sweat, and blurry eyes would have seemed innocent in comparison to what he would've done next.

Sasuke rested an arm over his eyes and sighed, his thoughts wrapped around pink lips, pink tongues, pink hair and guilty pleasures.

**-xxx-**

"Saks, if you think your hair is pink, you better take a look at your cheeks." Ino set down her cup of coffee to bite at a fingernail.

Sakura had been glued at her spot near the door for about five minutes so far and seemed almost unresponsive; the only sign she was still functioning properly (for a lack of better words, anyways) was the slight hitch in her breath and the almost abnormally pink blush in her cheeks. Her mouth was still wide open, her bottom lip trembling slightly while her eyes seemed to resemble equally wide disks of horror-filled seafoam green that seemed capable of foaming at their openings (if they had oral orifices themselves) at the pure shock.

She jerked her head and spine upright and sucked in a much needed breath before she trudged over to the couch and plopped herself down, pulling her knees up to her chest and crossing her arms around them, her brow furrowed as she chewed the bottom of her well-kissed lip.

"Damn him…"

Sakura picked up a pillow and started scrunching it at the sides, staring holes through the pillow. Dropping it flat on its side, she turned towards Ino. "He saw right through me!"

Ino stared at her, one of her eyes twitching. "Are you serious, Sakura?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, I create this huge, fail-proof plan and then he goes and—"

"Saks!" Ino snapped. When Sakura clamped her mouth shut, Ino sighed. "I'm not talking about your plan—wait—" She shook her head and took a deep breath—took a glance at the ceiling—fixed her gaze on Sakura. "Well, okay, I _am_ talking about your plan—"

"Yeah, it was foolproof! Or at least I thought it was—"

"But that's the _thing_, Saks," Ino said, finally making her way over to the couch. "It _wasn't_ foolproof. He saw an opening and he went for it, Sakura. How do you know he's not going to be able to do that with the next one, or the one where you end up in bed with him?" Ino's gaze softened before she placed the hand she had been waving around on Sakura's tense shoulder. "No plan is foolproof, Saks. Not even yours."

Sakura stared back at her, her cheeks still rather pink, her lips now pressed into a pout, her eyebrows drawn together—and Ino saw that it wasn't that Sakura didn't know.

Without any further words, Ino gently wrapped her arms around her friend's shoulders, smoothing her hand back and forth over Sakura's back in a comforting windshield wiping motion. "C'mon, Saks—who knows? M-Maybe this next plan of yours will be the foolproof one, eh? Don't worry. You're going to be okay."

Sakura's grip only tightened on the back of Ino's shirt. Her bottom lip trembled. "What did I get myself into, Ino?"

**-xxx-**

The first thing that felt off to Sasuke was the fact that Sakura no longer stopped by during his office hours, as she was a normal visitor who claimed that, since his quizzes seemed to be "harder than usual," (spoken sarcastically by said student Sakura) she "desperately needed his guidance in order to be enlightened in the ways of psychology." Sure, he saw her in class all the time—after all, if she managed to skip a day where he decided to dish out his famous spontaneous ten-bone quizzes, her grade in the course would sink like the Titanic.

The second thing that bothered him was the fact that she avoided all possible eye contact with him. Her nose was always stuck in a book (whether it be of erotic or educational content); she avoided participating in discussions during seminars (which he supposed was alright with him considering how she probably knew all ends of psychology and back); and even when he purposely called her out in order to get her to talk, she would speak in a monotone that normally _he_ would possess and focus at some point on the ceiling as if she were counting the miniscule grains of plaster that she probably wished would fall upon his head.

But the thing was—Sakura was normal to everyone else.

She laughed at Naruto's stupid jokes, smiled and patiently tutored other students in their endeavors to grasp certain concepts of psychology, and even helped Hinata carry some of her textbooks to keep her from fumbling over her own feet as she tried to see past the tower of books in her arms.

And what was more—Sakura actually kept _at_ it.

It went on _for days_.

And in those days, Sasuke felt his frown crease deeper and deeper into his face. There were times when he racked his brain to see if he could remember the way she used to smile and laugh at his sardonic, dry commentary on his peers and what it felt like when she'd lean her head against his shoulder during quiet hours that they had while he "tutored" her and he had pretended to not notice anything of it. When he thought hard enough, he could almost see the crinkling around her green eyes when she laughed at him and hear her hearty laugh—her _real_ one when she actually thought he was being funny for once instead of the fake one she tended to use while she was up to no good.

Her charade reached the point where he could hardly remember what she sounded like when she talked.

"Sakura," Sasuke said one day after class, after he had dismissed everyone.

She didn't even bother to look at him before she bolted towards the door from the other end of the room.

Sasuke shot from his chair. He jumped from one desk to the other to close in on her, faking left and hanging right before he reached the door—

"Arrgh!"

—just a moment before Sakura could grab the handle.

After a moment of panting, Sasuke stood tall, towering over her, his glasses slipped to the edge of his nose. He stared down the bridge of his nose at her, his brow furrowed and a scowl present on his lips. "You made me engage in a week's worth of exercise just to stop you at the door."

Sakura did her best to level her stare at him, to bring him down to her size and build herself up, balling her hands into fists at her sides. After a moment of attempting to hold a staring contest, she dropped her gaze and sighed. "Move," she said.

He didn't. "We had a deal, Sakura."

"The deal?" Sakura repeated slowly, looking as if she had never heard the word before in her life. She cocked her head to the side. "I don't remember anything about a deal…"

Sasuke couldn't stop the automatic slight raise in his eyebrows. To counteract it, he returned to his previously worn scowl. "Playing dumb doesn't suit you, Sakura." The way she seemed to find the ground more interesting than him made his eyebrows furrow even more.

He heard her swallow and take in a deep breath.

"Uchiha-sensei…" Sakura finally looked up from the floor and stared back at Sasuke, looking just as confused as he did. "I know the deal was that I was supposed to find 'proof' that you were Jiraiya—" She bit her lip.

"What?"

Another sigh. "I don't want to do this anymore."

Sasuke stared at her. "_What_?"

She rubbed at her eyes with the back of a hand. "Jesus—this is all so stupid. I mean, you're obviously not him!" She gave a nervous laugh and shook her head. "What was I even thinking? I mean, really, who just imagines that their psychology professor is secretly living a double life, like, writing pornos for a living?"

She never knew how right on the money she was in that moment.

The hole in Sasuke's gut, however, began to grow. What in the world was happening? He should have known that out-of-the-blue kiss was enough to scare her out of her wits. Was she going to report him to the campus police for his inappropriate behavior? Ignore him the remaining time she had in his course?

His heart thumped in his chest. Wait—that would mean that there would be no more stalking student. No more pointed questions—no more annoying, sly glances—no more cat-and-mouse half-flirting or expensive dates or attempts to read his email while he was away from his desk or snappy, crude jokes about his lifestyle and his diet—

No more seductive glances during lecture.

No more of her smart aleck jokes that actually made him choke on his spit.

Or her hearty laughter or the weird way she'd cling to him whenever she was scared.

No more of her smiles…

No more her. Period.

And with the hole in his gut and the thumping of his heart, the question remained: did he really want that all to go, just so that he could have the peace of being by himself, holding a boring façade until he felt like taking off his glasses for someone worth his time?

She startled when she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura."

She didn't look up. She didn't want to. Not with the way his voice seemed to raise goosebumps on her arms.

He tilted her chin to level her gaze with his, knowing completely well that she could see right through his thick lenses and into the dark pools of his eyes. "Reconsider if you need to. Do it if you want to."

Sakura resisted the urge to lean into his touch when his hand slipped down the side of her face and grazed past the ends of her hair. She could only stare at him.

Sasuke forced himself to keep from lingering. (_And how did his fingers get to her face?_) He could feel his control slipping away from him as he spoke to her. Quickly, with a twitch, he pulled his hand away from her and kept it by his side, feeling the same pull of gravity of the floor on his gaze and his line of vision. He couldn't look at her straight anymore.

"Go," he said. "Don't want to keep you too long."

Sakura stood a little straighter at his words, her eyes widening a bit. But without a word, she stepped past him, a hand on the handle of the door, and walked towards her dormitory.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke didn't hear from her for a couple of days. In the time that elapsed between classes, he found himself staring at tomatoes and wondering if they'd really splatter if they collided with a rotten body.

Wondered if he was a rotten tomato for putting that knitted-brow/water-eye/fear-drenched expression on her face.

There was just something about abruptly cutting off relations with someone that did something to a person—because he normally wouldn't think of himself in the terms of inanimate objects nor would he dread his next lecture.

But here he was.

In his lecture hall.

"Today's lecture is under the section of social psychology, of what most of us know very well—the psychology of attraction, love, and sex."

Sasuke could hear the snickering of the college students behind him as his chalk clacked across the board and mentally rolled his eyes when he heard a girl whisper about how it was _almost everyone, considering how Uchiha-sensei seemed as single as he was perpetually dorkified_.

Turning around, he cleared his throat. "In the laws of attraction, there are four aspects to a proper attraction: (1) physical attractiveness; (2) proximity; (3) similarity; and lastly, reciprocity.

"Now, physical attractiveness is easy to explain; as many of you may know, people are more attracted to partners who they think are attractive. For those who tend to rate others, there's also this idea called the _matching hypothesis_. In the dating terms of today, it simply means that those who are '_6_'s' date those who are also '_6_'s.'

"Proximity is also what it seems." Sasuke moved over towards one side of the room where Naruto sat, his arms crossed behind his head as he attempted to balance a pencil over his upper lip. "If you're literally close to someone, you have a higher chance of being friends or becoming a love interest, if you're exposed to them enough—a phenomenon shown through the _mere exposure effect_."

He looked down the bridge of his nose at the still sleeping Naruto. "So no matter how annoying someone may be, if you're exposed to him enough, an idiot may become extraordinarily charming to you."

Naruto squinted at him, scrunching his face up in disgust. "You mean that in a 'no homo' kind of way, right?"

Ignoring the blond, Sasuke continued. "Similarity is also self-explanatory and pretty much goes with _matching hypothesis_, so I'll be obliged to skip that."

He slowed to a stop in the middle of the room, eying the back of the room where Sakura sat. "As for reciprocity—it's also quite simple." A glare covered his lenses. "People tend to like people who like them. Attraction is, indeed, reciprocated."

From behind the tome she held to her face, Sakura couldn't suppress the jolt that ran through her when she saw his pointed stare and noted that her heart beat a tad too hard for her liking.

_What?_

He didn't move his bored gaze. "This attraction could lead to what you all know is romantic love, which includes passionate love and compassionate love.

"Passionate love is something I'm sure most of you are familiar with; it's synonymous with lust. You've got the sexual desire, tenderness and intense emotion—all of which goes hand-in-hand with that first girlfriend-turned-one-night-stand."

The entire class seemed to roll its eyes, but Sakura couldn't help but mentally facepalm and shake her head.

"Compassionate love, however, is different."

(The stare was back again; how long had it been since she had caught that stare in the middle of class in half-hearted flirting?)

"It has intimacy and commitment—which, if you are lucky enough to be in one, are both parts of a relationship." Sasuke finally cut his gaze away from hers and walked to one end of the lecture hall. "Of course, not all relationships are perfect."

At a quick glance at his watch, Sasuke pursed his lips and clicked his tongue. "I think I'll cut lecture off a little early today. Make sure to read up on sex."

The class filed out as usual, no one bothering to really watch Sasuke clear off the white board and clean out the erasers or sit down to check his email. Just as he was about to take off his glasses, he heard a throat clear from in front of his desk.

And there Sakura stood, her hands wrung in front of her, fiddling with her fingers and occasionally with the ends of her hair. But when she felt his gaze on her, she managed to stare right back at him, confident now. Her lips parted a moment before she clamped them shut again, as if she weren't able to find the right words to say for once.

"_Nanda_," he said brusquely and almost with an air of practiced indifference. Finally talking to him after three days—probably to tell him off for good and to tell him that she was reporting him to the campus police for being a total weirdo-pervy-sensei-thing—

Sasuke flinched when Sakura's hands came up to his face. He pushed away from his desk and stood up to remind her who was the bigger man, to tell her off before she could to him.

But Sakura simply took the glasses off his face and set them on his desk before going around it to stand with him, face-to-face. She smiled up at him shyly and was about to say something when Sasuke cut her off.

"What do you think you're doing, Haruno-san?"

She reached a hand up to cup his cheek, tippy-toing to whisper in his ear, "Reciprocating, Sasuke-kun."

And she pulled back to press those soft, sweet lips Sasuke had been thinking about since the moment they met to his.

**-xxx-**

**Author's Note:** WHOAWHOAWHOA, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? In light of their feelings for each other, Sakura now reciprocates her feelings towards Sasuke! Which only means that there must be a sexy time in the next chapter. ;)

Thanks to _sunshinestar16_ for being the first to review the last chapter!

Also, special thanks to those others who also reviewed the last chapter: _Animegirly, The Blossom Duchess, cutecookiechick, Erin, .Fire, Guest, _(another) _Guest, Hotaru Himura, ILoveSxS, LadyMartel4000, .Black, Otome Musings, pseudononymous17, SMILE, Toreh, xxxFlamingWingsxxx_


	7. By Its Sex Scenes

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. ;o

**Author's note: **um, so there's some sex in here. Sorry if the layout is confusing; it's supposed to mirror Sakura's thought process. XD Hope it makes sense!

Aaaaaand because of the angst in this chapter, I'm going to just destroy the humor genre like, right now.

**Answering Guest Reviews:**

**-Olga: **HERE IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR FANGIRLING QUALMS AND I HEART YOU EQUALLY AS MUCH AS YOU HEART THIS STORY THANK YOU SO MUCH Q A Q

**-Guest: **I think the next update is now. c:

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 7**

**By Its Sex Scenes**

**-xxx-**

Sakura woke up to the sound of her sensei snoring. Turning her head, she watched as his shoulders eased up and down. Without his glasses in the way, he seemed almost innocent and boyish, his eyelashes long and thick, grazing the tops of his cheekbones.

She wondered how he'd look if she kissed him awake.

Her eyes flickered down to his mouth.

(_With quick flicks of his tongue, her back arched. She didn't know where to put her hands—_

_did she cover her mouth or cling to the bedsheets or tug on his thick, soft locks, claw at his back?_

—_but she couldn't stop her hips from bucking towards his talented mouth. The sounds coming out of her mouth were foreign; she didn't remember breathing, just crying out to God and Jesus and _oh _God_ that was good_—)_

She didn't think that things would've gone that far, but after the lecture last night about _love and all of its subcategories of love_ it just broke all her resolve to keep as far away from him as possible.

(_Didn't she know that she sounded like one of those broken records that played those heartsick love stories about not being able to keep away from one's taboo desires?_)

Of course, she had only thought _maybe just one little kiss_—

(_But she heard the sincerity in his voice when he told her how beautiful she looked writhing under him, glowing with the passion and lust he felt for her and if she had been in her right mind, she would've realized how poetic he was with his words before she gave into something that wiped all reason and color from her mind—)_

—and that was all it took for Sasuke to carry her back to his apartment and into his bed.

She closed her eyes and shivered, unable to believe how vividly she could replay every single detail in her mind.

(_There's simply something in how a man touches you that makes you crumble. And she couldn't place it, how it felt to her—_

_ But she felt it when she felt his hands slide against her breasts._

_ Felt it when he caressed her sex._

_ When he tasted her—when she tasted him._

_ Held her, kissed her, gently stroked her—_

_ As if she would break._)

She lay there, still under his sheets.

Ino was bound to worry. How would she explain this to her? Would she tell the truth? _Could_ she? What would happen now?

After all, Sasuke had clearly shown interest in her last night—but boys would never outgrow themselves, would they? Would he still want her around?

An even bigger question turned in her mind: _did she regret this_?

After all, she hadn't figured out his "true identity"…

And this happened…

What would happen if she _did _find that he was Jiraiya? What then?

(_She couldn't help but cry out his name when he hit that magical spot within her and sucked on a taut pink nipple. And he seemed to like the way it sounded on her tongue so much that his pace became frantic._

_"Oh God…" _

_ She didn't even notice the red trails her nails were making down his back, nor the way Sasuke stared at her in wonder as she succumbed to a world of pleasure for the first time that night._)

She felt her nipples grow hard at the memory then shook her head to get herself back on track. She quickly made her resolutions—she'd tell Ino what happened (maybe not in so much detail, but enough so she'd get the idea that she had, in fact, lost her virginity to Sasuke), probably talk to Sasuke about working something out between them…

… maybe ask him to forget the whole "deal" thing and move on to something bigger and better between the both of them.

The thought of that made her smile and she shook her head at herself for being so foolish—after all, Sasuke was just _Sasuke_; sure, if he had been Jiraiya, it probably would've been understandable to not want anyone to know that he wrote porn, but she definitely knew that he'd be straight with her about it if he _did_.

_Of course, _she thought with a grin, _if I _hadn't_ had the impression he was Mr. Erotica Novelist, we probably wouldn't even be here in the first place._

Slowly, she eased herself out of bed, careful not to wake Sasuke before she took a glance at the clock by his bedside and sighed a bit out of relief when she saw it was barely past six o'clock. Tugging on a shirt she found on the floor (it was probably Sasuke's considering how large it was compared to her), she decided that she'd best make herself a cup of coffee when she saw an open Microsoft document on Sasuke's computer monitor.

Now, having been raised in a household that valued individual privacy more than anything, Sakura knew not to go poking her nose into other people's business…

… but see here: Sasuke had always been pretty private about stuff he wrote and during one of their dates, he _had_ mentioned that he did occasionally write…

… and by write, he said he wrote nonfiction essays for the psychology forum on the internet.

On most occasions, Sakura _definitely _knew better—but there were two aspects of this occasion that overruled and damned all of her manners: one, Sasuke wrote stuff for a psychology forum, so that meant that he knew all the new stuff that was coming out in the psychology world _before_ most people knew of it and two, Sasuke seemed way too poetic last night to not be able to write _well_.

Especially in the way he whispered his desire in the dirtiest words she'd ever heard.

Sakura blushed and thrashed her head about while silently making inhuman noises at the thought of last night again. Then, after a good shaking of her head, she tip-toed over to the computer monitor, double checking that Sasuke was indeed still fast asleep, and squinted at the screen.

Alright then—let's see…

Sakura observed the many colorful annotations (no doubt he was in the process of correcting some of the parts of his works), most of them dealing with structure and the grammar of the content. Sakura laughed when she saw the mentioning of _too many –ing phrases_ because "only Sasuke could say something like that about his work."

It wasn't until she saw the annotation about the mentioning of too many _meatsticks_ that she had to do a double take.

Um.

_What?_

The only writer she knew that mentioned (and practically _created _that term) meatsticks…

A silent swallow.

… was _Jiraiya_.

Scrolling back to the top, Sakura felt goosebumps on her arms and a thick lump forming in her throat when she read the title: _Hot Horny Nights (Temporary Name)._

_ "It was the night she finally succumbed to his charms. _

_She came to his flat, dripping wet, flushed pink in the cheeks and no doubt pink well-below. Her green eyes glowed with lust and fearful anticipation as she slowly revealed herself to him in all of her pure, pale glory, her skin milky white against the alabaster moon."_

Sakura felt her face flush once more, but not out of arousal.

Her hands trembled then grew into small balls of fists.

As she continued on with the word document, the heroine suspiciously seemed to sound more and more like her. Green eyes, pale pink hair, pale skin, even a sarcastic sense of humor.

And it didn't exactly help Sasuke's case that the seductive male role of the novel seemed to fit his character to a tee.

When she scrolled back up to the top of the word document, she couldn't help but notice small letters underneath the title:

_BY J-SANIN_

Bile rose in her throat and her brow furrowed. She wiped the hot tears that were starting to sting at her eyes.

She rolled the chair back and stood up, wordlessly going over to pick up her clothes and slipping them on. She dropped his shirt back on the floor and stood over him, contemplating, itching to punch him in the face.

She lowered her eyes at his still sleeping face. "So this is how you write your novels," she whispered to him, her voice breaking. "That's how they sounded so real. Because you base them off of reality."

Bitterness bubbled out when she gave a small laugh. "And here I was, thinking that I was being _so _smart about everything." Another bitter laugh. "Fucking hell."

Sakura gathered up all her things, not even bothering to look back at him. At this point, she didn't care if he woke up and saw her leaving.

Didn't care if he called for her anymore.

The creaking floorboards kept her along and awake enough to keep walking out, sober enough to wonder where her shoes were and if she had all of her books. Her legs felt numb and sore; her jaw, locked tight. She thought of all the things she should have told him, lamps and bedposts she should have tied him to so that he couldn't dodge the books she should have thrown at him. Questions she should've asked him.

It wasn't until she got to the outside that she couldn't stop the flood of hot tears anymore.

**-xxx-**

"Alright," Sakura told herself as she jogged in place, up and down in front of the humanitarian studies building, her textbook snuggled nicely in her arms. "You can do this; just a couple more weeks and you're done with this course, right? right."

With a deep breath, she gulped and made her way in to lecture hall, easing her way in the farthest corner she could find.

.

.

.

So…

Sakura wanted to kill herself.

Not like, _really_ kill herself (after all, that'd be a waste of intelligent life).

But for the rest of the day, she wished that she would kind of just, sort of, slip out of existence.

She cringed when she heard Sasuke's droning lecture voice.

"—so, as you know, the four stages of sex are, in order, excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution—"

… and _that_ was probably why.

She realized in a quick moment that she forgot to read the class notes (you know, 'cause running away from your professor's home and going home to sink into your couch and drowning yourself in junk food to wipe away all the stupidity you've ever been a part of doesn't really involve the time to indulge in a moment's worth of studying and _God knows why_)—so instead of sinking into her seat like normal (after all, she _was _all the way in the back this time), she decided to do something useful with her time and actually highlight and read the lecture notes.

But since the lecture today was about _sex_ she couldn't exactly get other thoughts out of her mind, no matter how much she without a doubt wanted to.

"—now, excitement involves the arousal of the genitals, the beginning stages—"

_Nipples puckered, his mouth sucking hungrily on one tit and a hand engulfing the other._

She squirmed—felt her body heat up at the memory. The sweat on her brow was no doubt from the guilt.

She could hear the sound of his oxfords clacking across the linoleum floor.

"—plateau is the stage of augmenting arousal, in which the genitals become much more lubricated and the palpitations of the heart increase dramatically, like the rising action in a storyline—"

_She couldn't help how hard she was breathing, didn't realize how tightly she was clinging onto him or how her nails were digging in enough to create moon-shaped indentations in his flesh—didn't stop to think, only to _feel_ the way he rutted against her, his sweat dripping onto her breasts, in such a fashion that it made her burn hot to the core._

Sakura felt herself tremble. God, she shouldn't be thinking about that—she _couldn't_!

But she knew that her body was betraying her every thought and conscious action—because she felt the way heat pooled into the pit of her stomach and how wet a certain area between her legs was becoming.

She squeezed her thighs together, rubbing insistently to stop herself.

_Oh God, ohGod, oh_God—

"—and orgasm is the stage that most of us overemphasize; this is actually the shortest stage of the sexual stages, lasting only seconds—"

_Clack. Clack. _

Sakura trembled when she felt herself go numb—from pleasure, from betrayal, from pain, she didn't really know.

But she knew that her mind went blank when she realized that Sasuke's shoes were right beside her.

"Resolution phase is when the body returns to its normal state, prior to arousal. This is normally a period of relaxation, and it could possibly take from half an hour to two hours for the body to recover from its aroused state."

She could see it—she couldn't very well look up, but she knew that in his eyes, he could remember the way she felt in his arms after they made love from the way he stroked her sides and held her close to him as if she really were the only one who ever affected him in such a way.

It was such a convincing act that it even fooled _her_.

"In any case," Sasuke said as he retreated from the back of the room to the front of the lecture hall, "that concludes our lecture on sex; I'm sure you all know all there is to know of sex. Please read the lecture notes on the next chapter and do expect a quiz soon. Dismissed."

The hall buzzed with excited chatter on the lecture, not of its outstanding deliverance but its subject.

Sakura nearly slumped and rolled her eyes in cynicism when she heard two girls gossiping about which professors would be the sweetest lays and which ones they _should_ lay to get their grade point averages up to par.

But before she could do any sort of sneaking out, Sasuke called her to his desk.

So.

Here she was.

Waiting at his desk while everyone else filed out to their next destinations.

She didn't bother making herself comfortable on the chair in front of his desk, merely holding her books in her arms and staring at him, waiting for him to be done and send her off like the professional he _should_ be.

Sasuke sat down and exhaled through his nose before he said, "I didn't see you this morning."

She rolled her eyes. "I was in class. Just way in the back, that's all."

"You know what I mean, Sakura."

"Uchiha-sensei, if you're going to bring this up, I have better uses for my time. I have another class to catch in half an hour and I don't fancy being—"

"You're late anyways," he said, cutting her off. Sasuke took off his glasses and narrowed his eyes at her. "Why did you leave?"

The only thing she really had left in her arsenal was a set of cold, unmoving stares. "I don't have to explain myself to a lying pervert."

"If this is about our relationship as student and professor—"

"No, Uchiha, you idiot!"

Her books clattered to the floor, long forgotten as the barriers around her fell. She trembled, her hands fisting into vicious balls. "You used me! You used me as writing material in your new stupid book, _Jiraiya_!"

Sasuke became very, very still.

The silence and tension were palpable between them, thick as phlegm and sore and cold.

"You were the one who touched my computer," Sasuke said.

Sakura could hear the anger smoldering below the surface of his hardened complexion.

And it blew up.

"What the _hell_, Sakura?" Sasuke growled, standing up now, his hands slamming onto his desk so hard that the sound of flesh and wood reverberated through the entire lecture hall. "That's an invasion of privacy!"

"So is having sex with me, but you didn't hear me complaining about it at the time!" she shot back, squaring up to him in full. "So is using me as 'inspiration'," she said, emphasizing her point with air quotes. "That should count as fucking plagiarism!"

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke was at a loss of words.

"Oh _God, _I can't even look at you, you—you sick creep!" she shouted, throwing stacks of paper and a stapler and paper weights at him.

"Oh, _I'm _the sick creep?" he retorted, flipping papers back at her. "You're the one reading my books!"

Sakura sputtered and put a hand to her temple, almost fearing that she'd have broken a vein because of his stupidity. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before she turned back to him.

"It's not _about_ your stupid books anymore. You _used_ me as inspiration for your novel." She shook her head slightly at him, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth hanging slightly open, just—wondering _why_. "How many other girls did you sleep with to get your first book finished?"

No response.

Rage bubbled up through her veins. "_I said_, how _many_, Sasuke?" she repeated, slowly as if he couldn't read her lips.

When she didn't get another response out of him, she screamed a cry of frustration and shoved his computer monitor of his desk. "_How many_?" She stared at him, searching for any sign of acknowledgement. "_Huh?_"

Sasuke couldn't find the words in him to speak. He could only stare back sadly at her. A couple of times he opened his mouth to speak, only to close it again.

Sakura couldn't stop trembling. The hot tears were back and threatening to slip down her face and she was so afraid that she couldn't stop them. Her voice broke. "That's all you saw when you looked at me? Cheap inspiration and a good lay?"

He lowered his eyes.

She closed her eyes. Felt the tears roll down her face, but she could have cared less. A half sob and a half laugh crossed her lips and she shook her head. Gathering her books in her trembling hands, she walked over slowly to the door, not even bothering to turn back.

She didn't have to, to feel his eyes on her back.

"You're fucking scum," she whispered.

And walked right out of the lecture hall.

Sasuke only found the courage in him to speak once she left.

Staring at the firebrand of desk utensils and the broken computer monitor, he whispered, "You were the only one."

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** so I know Sakura may _seem_ unnecessarily violent in this, but she's angry and I've always imagined her to be a firebrand whenever she was angry—which is something Sasuke would be, but Sakura definitely has that possibility too.

In any case… a new twist in the story has arrived.

Now time to see if things can be resolved properly, fufufu~

Congrats to _pseudononymous17_ for being the first to review the last chapter! c:

_Thanks to all those who reviewed last chapter: AllAboutEnvy, alldaylong, animefreak121592, Blossom Duchess, cutecookiechick, Hotaru Himura, ILoveSxS, LadyMartel4000, .Black, MizukiYukiko, Olga, pseudononymous17, SasuSaku993, and xxxFlamingWingsxxx_

**review?**


	8. By Its Plot Twists

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. Or anything that I don't own. XD

**Author's note:** soooo, the last chapter was exciting. We're caught in a battlefield now. See if you can catch any Godfather references because I felt in the mood for the Godfather, since this is a revenge sequence going on.

**Answering guest reviews: **

**-Guest (#1):** Reading your review was awesome. XD I'm so glad I portrayed her anger well! And I actually based that off of how I get angry, ha-ha. It kind of helps that I'm mad at my boyfriend, so yeah.

**-Guest (#2):** The next chapter after this will definitely explain about what Sasuke meant when he said, "You were the only one." ;)

**-kaorishinju: **Ha-ha, that's okay! I tried to make the lemon parts not so graphic, so I hope they were bearable in a way for you. c: Here's to the new update!

**-Hotaru Himura: **A good twist indeed~. ;) Thanks for being awesome.

**-Blossom Duchess: **I know, I know, they really were finally getting somewhere; but you know, most of us girls tend to get a little hissy when we get used and abused in ways of sorts.

**-Olga:** Thanks for the telepathic love! c: Glad you like it~

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 8**

**By Its Plot Twists**

**-xxx-**

Sasuke slowly eased himself onto his coach. He stared at the floorboards, his hands dangling uselessly beside him. With a bit of drive, he propped his chin upon the bridge of his hands, supporting his elbows upon his knees as he leaned forward, sighed, and closed his eyes.

He was in some pretty deep shit.

God, what was he thinking? Really, how did he forget to close his word doc window, anyway? Were there gods out there that knew his rather peaceful, untouched, karma-less life, gods who decided that his life was a bit too tame for their liking and decided that if _he _wasn't going to be the one to stir things up, then they would?

He opened his eyes and mentally shook his head. No; he couldn't blame it on that. What was he thinking in the first place, using _her_ characteristics? Sure, he thought that he'd end up changing the heroine's image into something completely commonplace, but at the same time, he felt like he would've probably gone along with using the Sakura-inspired heroine's description—which would have ultimately landed him in the Sakura doghouse anyway, due to how religiously she picked up his novels and read them with such relish that it was probably enough to top a hot dog.

While Sasuke went over to the kitchen to fish out a tomato and bit into it with gusto, he blew a frustrated wind out of his nose; if he had the time and the capacity to do so, Sasuke probably could've stayed there arguing with himself about how much of a loser he was in not being able to prevent such a stupid mistake.

(Which he would stop doing, of course, after giving his cursed word document the worst glare he could muster towards inanimate objects.)

Sasuke chewed thoughtfully on his tomato.

Despite everything, Sasuke couldn't help but assess the situation.

Sakura was definitely still mad as hell allowed her to be. Now, he had seen her mad a couple of times—and by mad, he meant annoyed at some of his odd habits or miffed that he was holding her back a couple of times to make fun of her "dropping" scores—but this was probably up there with goddess-shall-seek-vengeance-fury. He didn't expect anything less than that after what she perceived—after all, what girl _wouldn't_ be bat-shit angry after losing her virginity to her professor, only to find out that he seemed to be using her for his own selfish gains in the literary entertainment industry, having the audacity to include a personal description of her and of their night together.

It was as if he were advertising, _Hey, come check this girl out, she and I had sex together, and if she did it with me, I guarantee she'll maybe-sort-of-probably do it with you!_

And if not that, then probably something along the lines of _I'm a total creep, please arrest me; (insert goofy smiley-face emoticon)_.

Just the thought made him want to strangle himself.

Sasuke straightened.

He was probably in deeper shit than he thought.

And of course, there were an indefinite number of reasons why, but the first couple that popped into his mind were definitely going to either a), make him lose his job or b), force him into the shameful corners of the depths of the earth because he was going to feel like such a shithead after.

As he checked his wristwatch, grabbed his keys and headed to the car, Sasuke ran through his stupidities in his mind.

The first good-thing-turned-bad-thing that would potentially ruin him: the fact that he had relations with a student. If she was angry enough, Sakura could report him, claim sexual harassment or even sexual assault—and there was no doubt that she wouldn't be able to win her case. That would make him lose his job, land him a sex offender label, and prevent him from ever having a stable job ever again. (Yay.)

The second—she could potentially come and wreck his _home_. After scoping the depths of Tumblr and laughing nervously at what women did post-bad-breakup, he sincerely hoped Sakura would kindly act more civilized than that.

Sasuke glanced at the broken monitor in his backseat through the rearview mirror and swallowed.

But after that display of anger, it was a safe bet to say that Sakura getting violent wasn't out of the question.

Sighing, he took a left turn into the nearest computer store and tried to stifle the thoughts of a potentially violent Sakura.

The important thing he had to do now was fix his computer monitor, hurry home to print his manuscript, and then send it off to the editors before the deadline ended.

**-xxx-**

Sakura tapped the end of her pencil on her desk. She stared a hole in the wall. With a clenched jaw, she swiped the used tissues from her desk and into her trash bin and grabbed the hand sanitizer dispenser and squirted some into her hand, wrinkling her little red nose.

She sniffled, huffed and sank back down into her bean bag chair, groaning as she pulled her hood over her head. "I don't need this sick shit during midterm week," she said through her stuffed nose as she curled up with her box of Puffs® tissues. "This week just gets shittier and shittier."

Her fist clenched. The wounds were still fresh from the little confrontation she had with Dick-sensei (which would probably be his nickname for all time because she would _never_ get used to calling him by his name ever again—and mostly because that's probably what he thought with most of the time anyways, so might as well start labeling him right). Ignoring him the past week didn't soothe her in the least, only providing continuous kindle for the flame of her anger.

She couldn't stop ruminating over it.

She couldn't tell Ino about it (although Ino probably knew better than to ask her, considering how moody and sick Sakura had been lately), and that didn't allow for her to get the stupid thing out of her. She'd tried writing it down and burning it—she'd even resorted to burning her copies of _Icha Icha_ in some maniacal representative-ish burning of his soul.

Nothing worked.

She bit her lip as another thing warped in her mind, something juicy and delectable enough to pull her out of this rut and perhaps even bring her some closure in this situation. It was a little word she never thought she'd ever think of, but every situation calls for a new mindset, even if it meant that she was bound to go a bit insane within it.

It was a little sweet word called _revenge_, patented by the devil's advocate himself.

Sakura stroked the sides of her box of tissues as if it were a cat and she were the Godfather. There was a good chance he was anticipating it already, her revenge. The most obvious form of revenge he should be expecting would be if she were to report this incident to the campus harassment center—which would in turn rightfully destroy his entire career and label him as a sex offender for all time.

She frowned. However, that'd feel like a bit _too_ much. Sure, it'd label him as a sex offender and all that good stuff, but there were already rumors that she and Dick-sensei were hooking up; if she reported it, the rumors would be even more likely to be reaffirmed. Not only would it destroy _his _reputation, but it would forever scar hers as well.

She sank deeper into her bean bag chair. The second option seemed to be the _destroy-the-ex's-house-in-post-breakup-hysteria_ option, but she couldn't help but frown at that, too: it was too unoriginal and she'd be forced to pay for the damages, which included money she didn't exactly have.

She thought about the computer monitor of his she had destroyed out of blind fury and cringed, hoping that she wouldn't have to do any compensation for that little act.

Chewing on her lip, she wondered: what could she possibly do that wouldn't involve her money or the destruction of his personal property?

After a moment more of procrastination—running to the kitchen to get a cup of tea, painting her fingernails, doing a couple of sick push-ups, coughing and sneezing—Sakura decided it would probably be in her best interest to finish that paper for her English Seminar on Monday…

Sakura straightened. Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head, face-palming herself for not being able to figure that out so easily.

Situating herself onto her bean bag chair, stroking that box of tissues she brought everywhere, she grinned and laughed for the first time in the past few days. "Well," she said as she tugged a tissue out and prepared to blow her nose, "Dick-sensei's going to get an offer he can't refuse."

**-xxx-**

As Sasuke waited in the car for his computer to be fixed up, he couldn't help but think about how he couldn't stop thinking about her. Sure—she'd broken his computer monitor, had sex with him and left, probably burned his books by now, wanted to maim his face, and probably wanted to do more than simple physical, bodily harm to him—but he still couldn't get her out of his mind.

It wasn't just the sex he thought of; it was the thought that it seemed weird to him that he was still thinking about what she would do next, rationalizing events in his mind still, as if he were making excuses for her; it was the fact that maybe, all of this started because the both of them couldn't stop to _not _think about things rationally, and the only time they _didn't_ think of things rationally was when they _should have_ been thinking rationally.

Constantly, Sasuke was trying to separate the emotions Sakura made him feel from this process of deductive reasoning he used to figure out what she was doing next; he kept thinking about her as someone from enemy lines, as if she were the opposing strategist and he needed to defend himself from her.

Sure, it had been true that he had needed to defend himself before, keep his secret from being exposed.

But now that it was out in the open and she knew about it—what was the point of going through this mind reading stuff? Of over-thinking things he shouldn't over think?

Sasuke swallowed something thick in his throat. Maybe she had just decided he wasn't worth any sort of revenge or acknowledgement anymore—after all, she had been ignoring him this entire week and he had decided that it was best to leave her like that, right?

He rubbed at his eyes.

But that was the thing.

He didn't _want_ to leave her like that.

He'd come to terms with what he wanted—from himself, from her—the night before they made love. He _wanted_ her.

But it wouldn't work if she didn't care for him anymore.

And if that was the case…

Leaning back in the driver's seat, Sasuke clenched his fist, weakly dropping it against the wheel. If that was the case, then he still couldn't let her go. She couldn't possibly _not_ care for him anymore; after all, if she didn't, she wouldn't be so angry, would she?

Sasuke sighed. "All these emotions hurt my head," he complained, weakly banging his head against the wheel. He pursed his lips and gazed out the window. Whatever the case was—he was going to get her back, explain everything.

She couldn't stay mad at him forever. (Or hate him forever. Right? right.)

Before any other confusing thoughts could destroy his head or his resolve, Sasuke picked up his new computer, jumped in his car, and headed home to print out his awaiting manuscript.

**.**

**.**

**.**

The first thing that unsettled Sasuke a bit when he reached his house was the fact that the lights on the outside of his house were on.

Normally, they were activated automatically by someone or something walking by around his house, perhaps a neighbor or a dog, but the lights would normally turn off automatically after ten minutes.

But there wasn't just any ol' dog.

A car was beginning to pull out of his driveway, speeding away just as he approached.

When he parked, Sasuke got out, frowning and raising an eyebrow as he watched the car disappear around a bend of the neighborhood. Deciding not to think anymore of it (after all, people tended to use other people's driveways to turn around in a neighborhood and the driver must have gotten nervous as his approach), he shrugged, grabbed his bag and headed toward the front door. With a quick work of his keys, Sasuke walked into his little house, kicked off his shoes, and headed towards his den to email his editor about finishing his manuscript and to actually print his manuscript out.

He sank into his swivel chair, spun around once to wake himself up a bit (whee), and then settled down.

"Okay," he muttered to himself, as he woke his computer up, "let's see…"

When his desktop finally appeared, Sasuke scanned it, looking for his document.

He froze.

Double checked it again.

"No way," he said, entering the name of his word document into the document search engine.

It came up with nothing.

It was nowhere on his computer. He hadn't bothered to save it on a flash drive just in case anything happened to it, because normally word documents wouldn't just commit word document _seppuku_—

He tensed.

_No fucking way._

**-xxx-**

Sakura sauntered down the hallway to her dorm, yawning. She hadn't expected to be done with her plan so late, but at least when she got back, Ino wouldn't be there to ask questions, probably already fast asleep and conked out from all the studying (yeah, right) she had probably done. She had yet to talk to her friend about what had happened a week ago, but that would take a while to get out of her system before she could really even speak his name.

As she slipped inside as quietly as she could and made her way into her room to get ready for bed, she took a breather before smirking at herself in the mirror, utterly satisfied.

.

.

.

_ "Ugly, do tell me again under what social means it shall endorse with this sort of breaking-and-entering a professor's home? Is this what our peer group would call 'pranking'?"_

_ Despite not having known Sai for very long (after all, she had met him in an arts and crafts seminar), Sakura still couldn't keep herself from rolling her eyes. "Shut up and drive, Sai." Normally she wouldn't be very brusque with acquaintances (poor Sai), especially since he was nice enough to offer to be a part of her little plan in his attempt to reach out and become more socially active as a college student (i.e., being the transportation she needed to not get caught red-handed in the middle of his house), but she couldn't help but internally seethe at the fact that Sai eerily resembled a certain someone._

_ A certain someone she wouldn't mind using as a tester in measuring the strength of her strangulation tactics…_

_ As they continued on their way to Dick-sensei's house, Sakura realized that she also wouldn't have minded strangling Sai as he peppered her with odd questions—_

"_Is this what they may call 'foreplay?' "_

"_Is breaking-and-entering professors' houses a hobby of yours?"_

"_Do you call him Dick-sensei because he likes dicks?" (That one was an exception because it made her laugh)_

—_but finally, they reached their destination._

_Sakura took a quick look through her binoculars._

_The house seemed to be empty—probably fixing up the computer that she broke, no doubt—and the coast seemed clear._

_Sakura unlocked the passenger seat door before she turned back to Sai. "Wait by the other end of the street in case he comes back. When I'm done, I'll give you a quick call to come back for me. If he gets back before I get out, send me an emergency call." She held up a finger. "But _only_ if it's an emergency."_

_Sai cocked his head, furrowing his brows as he considered her words. "Do you consider having hunger pangs from the lack of pizza an emergency?"_

"_Just stay low for a while."_

"_What does that mean?"_

"_Keep hidden."_

_And with that, she dashed towards the house._

_Quickly picking the lock of his front door, she slipped inside, careful to wipe any hand prints off of the door knob. "Now then," she said to herself as she looked around his living space, "if I were a manuscript in the modern era, I would be on a computer—and if I were a computer, where would I go?"_

_She thought for a moment and then snapped her fingers. "Man den." Creeping towards a room, she peeked inside—and squealed when she saw a PC standing tall and proud against one of the walls of his room. Clambering over dropped books, she slid onto his swivel chair and spun around once (whee) and got down to business._

_She frowned when a password screen popped up. "Darn it," she muttered and clicked the hint._

**H I N T:**

_**hi im naruto and sasuke lets me play around with his passwords  
jokes on him cuz the password is the awesomest thing in the world **_

_Sakura stared at the screen for a moment and stifled a giggle, remembering the blond man from her psych seminars, and typed in _**ramen4ever**_, giving a mini cheer when the desktop popped up. _

"_Okay," she said to herself, a couple beads of sweat on her brow, "let's make this quick." _

_Finding the icon with his titled manuscript, she dragged it to the trash bin. With a right click, she scrolled down to the _Empty Trash Bin_ command._

Last chance, _she told herself as the pop-up screen demanding whether she was sure or not about emptying the trash bin came up._

_After a few moments of deliberation, she clicked, _Yes.

_She waited a few moments after, letting it soak in for a moment—and then dashed out of the house when her phone vibrated in her pocket. _

_When she slid into the car, she looked back to see Sasuke staring after the car._

_To her, it almost seemed like he was looking right at her. _

_._

_._

_._

She had actually done it.

Her plan had gone flawlessly, minus a few close calls, but it had gone perfectly nonetheless. His manuscript was gone; she had potentially ruined his career as a writer, or in the least, pushed back the deadline of the publishing of his next novel, which would no doubt lead some of his fan base astray and make him lose his popularity for a while. And most importantly, she had erased herself out of his stupid porn scenes.

However…

She knew that it was a temporary setback. He would be up on his feet and writing again—perhaps have the audacity to create an even more horrendously risqué character. He would have to find another girl to sleep with, to create another novel idea so that he could write more of that stupid smut.

He would move on as if she were never in his life to begin with.

She felt numb as she slipped underneath her sheets.

**-xxx-**

**author's note:** eh-heh… why, hello there. Sakura's having a bad time coping with her feelings—a bit of cognitive dissonance in her systems, which is pretty bad right before finals week.

For me, however, everything is going exactly to plan. The next chapter should be the last (I'm determined to make it the last), and I should be complete with this story before I head on back to school and destroy my entire social life because college.

/gross sobbing

Anyways—hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please do review. ;)

_Special thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter:__** alldaylong, Bloomart124, Blossom Duchess, Cherrybomb-liv, cutecookiechick, Daniratoe, Guest (#1), Guest (#2), Hotaru Himura, ILoveSxS, kaorishinju, LadyMartel4000, lola1919100, my-name-is-V, Olga, SasuSaku993, **_and_** websterdevil**_


	9. By Its Cliche Ending

**blanket disclaimer: **I don't own anything that I am not meant to own.  
**  
author's note:** hey guys! sad life is sad because guess what? Last chapter. /gross sobbing. Sorry it came out a little late. I did some procrastinating, bwahaha.

**-xxx-**

**Chapter 9**

**By Its Cliché Ending**

**-xxx-**

Sasuke couldn't stop spinning around in his chair. He couldn't remember the last time that he had actually blinked. There were moments when he stopped his frantic spinning and took to frantic pacing. He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself but only ended up choking on his spit. A glass of water didn't help either, only managing to congeal with his spit in his airway and throw him into a coughing fit. Giving up, he robotically maneuvered himself back into his swivel chair and stared point blank at the screen of his computer.

It was veritably safe to say that Sasuke was currently having the first panic attack of his life.

Clenching his jaw and pulling at his lower lip, he cleared his throat and finally managed to take two calming deep breaths. "Focus," he told himself. "Freaking out over this isn't going to solve anything."

_Okay, _he told himself, grabbing a pen and a blank piece of paper, _how much time do I have left?_

His editor had given him three months grace to finish up the manuscript that he had procrastinated on.

Sasuke had given himself six weeks to find inspiration and six weeks to write it.

_But_, he told himself as he created a couple of arrows and scratched out his previous statement, he had managed to find inspiration within the first couple of weeks and started writing his novel around the end of the second week. He managed to finish the rough manuscript in about three weeks—it wasn't a long novel, about two hundred pages at the most because smut with some sort of plot line honestly couldn't push past _that_ many pages—so that was a good sign.

"But that leaves me with five weeks to be inspired _and_ to write a new manuscript," he said under his breath as he circled the key numbers. He felt something rise in the back of his throat and he pushed it back by taking a sip from his glass of water and took a deep breath. He pushed back the fringe of his hair with his palm and sighed. "How am I supposed to find another source of inspiration now?"

After another moment of contemplation, Sasuke clenched his jaw and weakly punched the wall, leaning back and covering his eyes with his palms.

He gave an exasperated sigh and groaned. "Fuck my life."

Sitting up in the most sluggish manner he could possibly pull off, he stared at the pile of papers on his desk.

With a burst of fury, Sasuke viciously shoved them off the side of his desk, roaring in frustration.

"Fuck, fuck, _fuck_," he growled, kicking the leaves of paper.

His shoulders were tight with anger, fists clenched and graced with white knuckles.

A part of him wanted to ask why she would do this, ask the rhetorical question _Why do I deserve this?_ and _What on earth did I do?_ but those were impossible questions he knew the answers to.

He thought that the two of them were out of the psychological-world-war phase. He knew she wouldn't take it well and even anticipated that she'd engage in some sort of retaliation; a little bit of spitball during lectures, _maybe_, but not something that would possibly destroy his writing career.

He leaned his forearm and forehead against the wall. This was bad. Sasuke _knew_ it was Sakura who came and entered his house, but he knew that if he looked around, he wouldn't be able to find a trace of her. How would he tell the police that an important document was "stolen" when it wasn't stolen, nor was it an important document (in the minds of the police, anyway)?

She'd outdone him again.

With a frustrated huff, he slammed his fist onto the wood, getting a bit of satisfaction from the hollow sound. "Stupid," he muttered. He slid down the wall and buried his head in the crook of his arms, narrowing his eyes at an unmentionable corner of the room.

Great. When he finally managed to stop being Boring-Sensei-san and attempt to socialize in order to save his career, it turned out to be a major disaster. The cover he managed to keep under wraps slipped out to a girl he wanted longer than a one night stand; he had the possibility of being sold out to the harassment center for "improper conduct"; he lost his manuscript to the pettiness of revenge, _and_ had about five weeks to find another source of inspiration and write his new novel.

If Sasuke were a casino case, he would end up losing big time: his day job, his night job, and the respect of everyone he knew.

All because the girl he made love to never stopped to listen to his side of the story.

Just before he could sink even further into symbolic despair, a thought struck him—_That's _it—and he straightened. His mouth opened slightly. "Why didn't I think of that in the first place?" Rising slowly from his place by the wall and gathering up all the scattered papers, Sasuke plopped himself down into his seat and began to write.

**-xxx-**

Despite everything that happened, Sakura managed to get over that stupid cold that was plaguing her and hit the books as hard as she could. Finals week was finally here—a week where all classes closed and gave time to the students to study prior to blowing their brains out on actual finals week—which Sakura was extraordinarily thankful for. She didn't think she'd be able to handle sitting in _that guy_'s lecture hall for another moment, let alone see him.

And after she took the final, she was scot-free.

_That's right_, she told herself as she jiggled her pencil between her fingers, _no more stupid Sasuke_.

Sakura stared at the wall for a moment before she groaned and leaned back in her chair, clapping her hands over her eyes. "Stupid cognitive dissonance," she said, tossing her pencil half-heartedly onto her desk.

Like she didn't have enough to worry about, what with finals week already looming right beside her. She thought she was over this already—what was wrong with her?

"It's your stupid impulsive brain, you idiot," she told herself as she slumped forward to bury her face in her pile of arms. First she decided she liked the dude—well, _really_ liked him—then she decided she hated his guts—then she liked him again—then she had _sex_ with him—and _then_ she had the audacity and disturbing mindset to _break into his house_ without even _bothering _to listen to his side and erase half of his life's work.

And now she was _regretting _it.

(Really, where was her head?)

Thanks to her, he probably _despised _her as much as she did him; sure, he did something terrible, but Hammurabi's code shouldn't apply to that. She could've forgotten about—well, never mind, she probably _couldn't_ have, but still! She could have at least administered a less harsh punishment—maybe she should have broken his glasses or something…

On one hand, she knew she couldn't stand it if she just told herself, "Oh, you know, you deserve it for sleeping with him without thinking because you know, (insert slut shaming phrase here)," because she knew what she wanted and she knew what she got herself into.

But at the same time, she was mad because he used her in his sick novels—but then again, shouldn't she be flattered in some manner? What if she was just blowing everything out of proportion? Why didn't she just talk to him about it in the first place instead of storm off and do something as reckless as possibly destroying someone's career? Even if it was for the sake of her dignity?

Tired of all the back-tracking and second-guessing, she decided maybe it would be good to study in an area with actual people to keep her sane. She packed up her books, thinking about where the nearest café was on campus.

.

.

.

In the macchiato-indulged warmth of the over-popularized café, Naruto felt right at home. Although he wasn't much of a coffee, tea, or caffeine-consumer in the slightest, the warmth was a nice change from the rather chilly outside campus. He sighed to himself and slumped over his cup of instant ramen—it was as if the souls of his professors permeated the campus and decided to proclaim finals week as a week in Dante's Hell.

(Ooh, not a bad metaphor if he could say so himself. He might just have to jot that down somewhere.)

In any case, he was having the time of his life procrastinating a little bit before he buckled down to the books and then hoped that he'd studied well enough for each test.

Grimacing at the thought, Naruto decided to shoo those thoughts away with some slurps of ramen—and then maybe get to ordering a cup of matcha green tea, perhaps.

A gentle tinkling of the bells atop the door and a brisk wind alerted the café of a newcomer.

Naruto glanced up with curious eyes to find a girl with pink hair shiver her way in through the doorway. _Hey, _he thought, _that's that one chick from _teme_'s psych class who comes late all the time._ He had known her as a great student from high school; during high school, he had talked to her occasionally when they happened to be waiting at school together while they were waiting for the doors to open, but nothing ever past grades and such. The conversations were always short, quick, and rather shallow—just the way two classmates would talk.

So it wasn't hard to believe when Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her when she made her way over to him. He glanced back and forth.

Left.

Right.

Underneath his instant cup of ramen.

Did he have something she wanted?

Wait.

_Holy crap,_ she really _was_ coming toward him.

Naruto cracked a friendly, awkward smile and waved, despite being a little self-conscious about how stiff his arm was (was that a good wave? Probably not—_oh God, what did he do_). When she sat down in front of him and took out her laptop and sent him only a smile and a thank-you nod, he cleared his throat.

"So," Naruto said, "what brings you to my humble table, Sakura?"

She didn't look up, typing away and scribbling on a piece of paper in between. "The other tables were full. And this seems pretty big for one person to sit alone, so I thought I'd give you a bit of company." _Then_, she glanced up at him. "Shouldn't you be studying for—?"

"Oh, yeah," Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "I was gonna start on that after I finished my ramen n' stuff. Oh, but if I bother you with the slurping noises and stuff, just, ya'know, tell me and—"

Sakura laughed. "Calm down. It's the least I could probably do for busting into your territory."

"Oh. Okay."

After exchanging another round of awkward, closed-mouth smiles, they eased back into their relative, individual niches, Naruto slurping away at his ramen without a care in the world and Sakura hard at work, blending into the frantically studying (or procrastinating) crowd.

Now, Naruto was a nice guy. At most times he tried to be. He tried to be nice and friendly and all-around a conversation starter. But as much as he tried, he couldn't find it in himself to find a way to start a conversation without mentioning some sort of school work (after all, that's what she was mostly known for in his mind)—which meant potentially annoying her.

Which meant potentially losing a potential procrastination partner.

Which meant sad Naruto.

And although she thought she was being discreet about it, Naruto had caught her eying him a couple of times before looking back uncomfortably towards her screen and then doodling a little on her paper before attempting to study again. When it came to fake-studying, Naruto knew how to do it best—and thus, he was able to spot it best.

Whatever it was that was bothering her, he really wished that she'd come out and say it so that the awkward silence and awkward back-and-forth staring would stop already.

Sighing through his nostrils, Naruto decided that maybe he would get that matcha tea and excused himself silently from the table, glancing to see if he had disturbed her and—once confirming that she was still in between studying and not-studying—walked as quickly as he could to the cash register.

Or maybe he should've walked more slowly so that he wouldn't have to come back to the table faster…

Darn, why didn't he think of that in the first place?

(This is why he wasn't the genius—and why he really _should_ get started on that studying he had planned for himself before he ended up cramming the nights before…)

Unfortunately for awkward-silence-phobic Naruto, the matcha green tea came out as quickly as it could, thanks to the impeccable efficiency of the barista (darn you, barista-san). He took a nice, long, leisurely sip and hauled his ass back to the table with much difficulty.

Maybe he should stop once and a while to admire the scenery or find someone else he knew…

No, wait, he couldn't do that anymore.

Because, ya'know—Sakura was just _casually_ looking right at him out of the corner of her eyes, expectantly.

When he was in ear shot, he saw her roll her eyes. "Just sit down already, Naruto. I won't bite—jeez."

With a sheepish toothy grin, Naruto eased himself into his chair, wanting to ooze down the back of his seat and into an abyss that he hoped would come and swallow him whole. Out of all the tables, really, why did _his_ happen to be the empty one tonight to be available for a person of the _exact opposite work ethic of him_? Did someone controlling a series of unfortunate events decide that he should feel bad about himself and perhaps "enjoy" a bit of cognitive dissonance (ooh, application of psych term—score!) to guilt-trip him into studying earlier than the planned schedule?

Of course, Naruto didn't have to worry about that any longer.

His keen ears heard a soft '_ahem_' and he blinked, realizing that he had blanked out and that Sakura was staring at him expectantly, albeit a bit nervously.

"Naruto…" she said, slowly, not looking at him in the eye.

He braced himself for a question about which sections he recommended she should study in order to put him to shame.

"… are you—are you good friends with Uchiha-sensei?"

Naruto blinked, his eyes wide. He dug a pinky into his ear to make sure he heard her right. "Uh… yeah?" He put his cup of tea down and narrowed his eyes to tiny, curious slits. "Why? Is this about the final? Because if it is, _teme_ says that he's not playing favorites, and that _includes_ me—"

"No, no, not at all," Sakura said, waving that preposterous idea out of the way. "I just wanted to know if he tends to…" Naruto watched as Sakura struggled to find the right words. "… be inappropriate with his students."

Life for Naruto was full of little surprises. First, straight-A, hikkikimori Sakura came up to him after many years of ignoring him; then she attempted to make conversation outside of conversational niceties and schoolwork; _then _that conversation was about his friend _teme-sensei_ and his professionalism with his students. It was like all the conversation he should have had with Sakura the many years before seemed to come tumbling into his lap.

Naruto laughed. "What? Teme being _inappropriate_?" He smacked his forehead and held his belly as if he needed to hold all his laughter inside himself, shaking his head. "No way! I mean, god forbid that _that guy_ would even break his diet regimen. Like, not following that alone would make him implode or something, ha!"

He didn't notice his seatmate's troubled gaze as she seemed to sink lower into her seat, attempting to hide behind her laptop monitor.

Getting himself together and not mindful at all of the stares he had managed to garner, he wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes. "Oh man, that's funny. I wouldn't even think that he'd have a sex drive even."

Sakura stood up abruptly, almost tilting the table over and forcing Naruto to scramble for his cup of tea. She packed up her stuff and threw her coat over her shoulders before she said a brief, "I have to go, thanks" and sped-walked out the door.

Naruto watched her go. When the breeze from the opening door faded, he frowned and scratched the back of his head. "What's her problem?"

**-xxx-**

Sakura dragged herself to the testing facility. Finally—the end of the line. She had managed to pull herself out of bed and tell herself that she'd only have to see him just once more and then she wouldn't ever have to see him again.

God, for the first time in her life she was questioning whether she could actually sit through another three hour test. Sleep didn't exactly agree with her last night; it felt like the sand master was playing a game of catch-the-string with her. She had all her "utensils" and what not, but all she had had for breakfast was a cup of coffee and her stomach was almost barking at her.

Sakura took a deep breath. No use getting panicked over this. She knew the material; all she'd have to do was be able to have enough stamina to push through.

She pushed through the doors and made her way towards the front, glad that she was a little early to find a seat for herself (and early enough to avoid He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named).

As she sank her head into her arms to relax a little bit and watched as others filed into the room with jittery hands in the midst of their own balancing acts with pencils and erasers, she cracked her knuckles and listened carefully to the instructions, noting the time limit and the end time as Uchiha-sensei droned in that (_stupid_) drone of his.

She tried her best to look as indifferent as possible when he came to hand her the test packet.

Although her inner self told her _specifically_ that she should absolutely, positively avoid his eyes at all cost, Sakura thought chancing a look wouldn't hurt, especially if she was going to show him how indifferent she could be to his presence.

When she looked up to him, she jolted—a little uneasy at the fact that he was already staring back at her expectantly. (Gosh, why did she never listen to herself, she completely forgot about how sexy those eyes were, gah, noooo.)

He cleared his throat awkwardly, making her straighten in expectation. "Haruno-san, please refrain from wasting anymore of my time and please take your test from me."

Oh.

_Oh._

She took the test from him with both hands and stared at a spot on her table, wishing that she could slowly sink through her chair and into the ground when she heard the others snickering from behind her.

The rest of the testing day, however, went without a hitch. Although she felt she could have done better, she decided that she had done well enough to get the grade she wanted (even though she managed to wake up halfway through the test, so maybe that was just wishful thinking).

But when it was over, she couldn't help but take one last glance behind her to stare at him, organizing the tests on his desk and adjusting his glasses that she knew he never really needed. She sighed, heaved her bag over her shoulder, and merged with the crowd to leave the testing facility.

**-xxx-**

Sasuke eyed his editor as he plunked the manuscript onto the wooden desk. He leaned back in his chair and rolled the glasses off his face, giving his editor a dead-on stare. "Well?"

His editor filed through the papers again, glancing at a couple of highlighted and penned spots. "This seems different from your previous works."

"I don't care if it's different as long as you think it's good."

"Good?" said his editor as he paper-clipped the leaves of paper together again. "It's great! Although most erotica doesn't have a very solid plotline, you've managed to add erotica-level smut in most of the scenes and make a heart-wrenching storyline. It's brilliant!"

Sasuke let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding onto. He stood up and held out a hand to his editor. "Thank you very much."

His editor grabbed his hands with both of his own and shook Sasuke's hand vigorously. "Please, Jiraiya-sensei, the pleasure's all mine!"

.

.

.

It was almost time for the med school applications and everyone was frantic. Including a supposedly-not-freaking-out med school applicant.

After tugging on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and dragging Ino out of the bed by her feet to stick to the grocery store date they had agreed to—because honestly, campus food wasn't all that healthy and pizza each day—Sakura trekked to the produce isle, not heading Ino's complaints about how she may _like _salad, but cooking much else was way too much work.

And Sakura tried her best to empathize with Ino, but as she held up one group of greens in one hand and a foret of broccoli in another, she tried to calm herself. She needed a recommendation letter by a professor who knew her fairly well as a part of the application process—but throughout her entire career, she only had one professor who she bothered to get close to who would be a _perfect _candidate for the recommendation letter writing.

She ran some numbers through her head. It'd had been about four months since she last saw him and she honestly didn't want to see him again after embarrassing herself and not wanting to compromise any of her dignity and her pride—she wasn't an easy woman and didn't want to be seen as such, and to talk to him again felt like a regression to her.

Sighing, she decided that maybe she'd visit the book isle again to see if any good erotica had come out recently since Ino was off flirting with some employee who was helping her find some tasty cereal. She had been trying other authors' novels but couldn't really manage to get past the first couple of chapters (honestly, how hard was it to write porn?). Although she wasn't partial to "Jiraiya-sensei" the writer, she really did enjoy his novels and regretted burning her old novels so hard (did they even sell them anymore?).

And ever since she had deleted his last manuscript, it seemed like she might just have ruined the career of the most well-known erotic literary artists ever.

Sakura picked up a book and huffed. "Hi," she said under her breath in a mock-enthusiastic voice, "I'm Sakura. Oh, you like Jiraiya-sensei's novels? Well, guess what? I actually met the dude! He's not some wart-covered creep who stares into girls' bathrooms for inspiration, he's actually this really hot, dorky professor who wears glasses to keep chicks from attacking him, and I had sex with him and got mad because he made me a star in one of his novels!"

She frowned at a novel with whips and chains on the front and shoved it into the back of the novel pile. Someone else would thank her for that later. "So yeah," she said to herself again, "I practically destroyed his life for that because yeah, and now I can't talk to him because my stupid dignity won't let me do it. Oh, what's that? You hate me?" She put another book aside. "Great!"

Just as she was about to give up on ever reading erotic literature altogether, she screeched to a halt when she saw an orange cover she wouldn't ever forget.

It was a small, paperback bound novel with a pink heart covering the middle of the front cover. In front of the heart, two lovers stared angry, electric, competitive sparks into each other's eyes. Underneath the picture in neat, printed kanji said "Jiraiya."

She picked it up, her heart thumping in her chest, and slowly put it in her basket. When she rechecked her list to make sure she got everything she needed and dragged Ino away from the employee, she walked as calmly as she could to the checkout counters.

As the cashier scanned the novel, her eyes widened. "Oh, this is the new novel, isn't it?"

Sakura nodded meekly as she placed her money into the provided basket next to the cash register as carefully as she could.

"Oh, _sumimasen gozaimasu_," the cashier said, remembering the professionalism protocol between employee and cashier deposited the change into the basket before she gave a little bow. "Thank you and have a nice day!"

.

.

.

As soon as they got back into the dorms, Sakura ran into her room and slammed her door shut, ignoring Ino's calls and protests about putting the groceries away all by herself. Locking the door behind her, she slid down to the ground and slowly opened the book.

Scanning the pages as quickly as she could, she discovered that this wasn't a traditional erotica—it was something different from the traditional erotica, although it still had smut scenes in about the same frequency.

Told from the perspective of a young man (which was strange because most surrounded a female perspective), it was a story about him writing erotica while using a day job to cover up his identity. The drama surrounded the young man and a girl (who had gotten very curious with his true identity), playing mind games with each other while they eventually fell in love.

Sakura's eyes widened at the mentioning of a Miyazaki-themed haunted house—and then a key sex scene that caught her breath.

"As I kissed down her body," she mouthed to herself, "I watched as she squirmed beautifully under my fingertips; I'd never seen another woman like I'd seen her before. She glowed with an innocence I was sad to say that I lost."

She swallowed down a lump in her throat and continued to read.

"When I spread her apart, she blushed and covered herself, but I could see how pink she was. I couldn't help but want to restrain her, hold both her wrists in one of my fists as I held her lips apart. My breath ghosting along her slit, I finally couldn't take any more waiting and plunged my tongue into…"

She felt herself growing hot from reading one of these novels for the first time and hid her face into the book for a while before she pushed through and read it to the end.

She closed the novel and looked at the spine, tracing the title. For the first time in a long time, she smiled and closed her eyes, letting real, fresh, and long withheld tears go.

Picking herself up, she dusted herself off and looked through her closet for something nice to wear.

**-xxx-**

When Sasuke reached his office, he was indeed expecting her to be there.

And there she stood, by his desk like she always did after class, staring at him expectantly as he made his way at a leisurely pace towards his desk.

He decided to play dumb. "How may I help you, Sak—?"

She threw an orange novel onto his desk and stared at him expectantly. "Explain yourself," she said, trying to keep her voice level.

"If you already read it, then it gives you all the explanation you need," Sasuke said, leaning back in his chair.

She didn't budge. After a moment of silence, she said, quietly, "What did you mean when you said that I was the only one?"

Sasuke stared back at her for a moment. Then, he took the novel and opened it to a seemingly random page.

"Hey, I asked you a—"

" 'I only found the courage in myself to speak once she left,'" he read in a drone as if he were forced to read to a young child. " 'Staring at the firebrand of desk utensils and the broken computer monitor, I whispered, "You were the only one."'" His tone got softer, gentler. " 'And she was. She was the only one I had made love to out of other women who I had only used for my own literary gains.'"

Then, he glanced up at her, making something inside her twist and turn awfully strangely. "She was the only woman who managed to look past the windows of my glasses and into that of my soul."

After that, he closed the book and set it down. Taking off his glasses and setting them down on the desk, he came around and smirked down at her, making her think to herself what on earth she was doing, staying away from this man. In a soft, husky grumble, he said, "I thought you could retain what you read, Ms. A-Student."

She punched him lightly in the chest before she gave him a soft, tiny smile. "Are you going to kiss me or not?"

Without further ado, he lifted her chin up with two delicate fingers and pressed a soft, sweet kiss into her lips, feeling her smile into the kiss. Giving her a slight nip and then a peck on the cheek, Sasuke stared down at her, stroked her cheek, and gazed at her face.

Sakura smiled shyly at the ground. "Sorry I, uh… destroyed your life's work the first time." With a little grunt of forgiveness, Sakura perked up and said, "Oh! I almost forgot! I need this recommendation letter for med school and…"

**-xxx-**

Sakura stared blankly at the television, flipping from one channel to the next. What on earth was there to do on a weekend at your boyfriend's house?

In any case, she decided to settle for the news. After scanning the running headlines of certain kidnapping cases and domestic violence issues, she settled into the couch and prepared for an afternoon nap when something caught her ears.

She jolted up and leaned towards the television, turning up the volume. Confirming what she had heard, she yelled, "Sasuke, come here, quick!"

When he didn't respond, she ran into his room and dragged him out by his arm despite his protesting and sat him down hard onto the couch.

"What the hell, Sakura?"

Sakura held a finger to her lips. "Shh, just listen!" she said and turned up the volume some more.

"… Japanese adult novelist Jiraiya-sensei's most recent novel has been talked about being, quote, 'one of the most interesting adult novels in history,' and 'another very beloved novel.' The novel is currently being rumored to be one of the nominees for a very well-known adult novel prize."

She put her hands in front of him, as if she were making headlines with her palms. " 'Judging a Book,' national best seller by Japanese novelist Jiraiya-sensei wins the Adult Fiction Award." Sakura hugged Sasuke and squealed before she turned to give him a small peck on the lips. "Didn't expect that, now didja?"

Sasuke smirked and flipped the TV off before he grabbed his girlfriend and pulled her down beneath him, reveling in the way she squealed and mock-pushed him away. "Not in the slightest," he responded, kissing her neck. "But right now, I see another happy ending that I'm going to take advantage of."

_**Fin.**_

**-xxx-**

**Author's note:** Aaaaaand that's a wrap!

Thank you all who reviewed and stuck with the story, ladies and gentlemen, one and all!

Special thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter: **Animegirly, Bloomart124, Blossom Duchess, Charlenea, cutecookiechick, Daniratoe, Erin, Guest, IcePrincess01, ILoveSxS, kEa-cHiI, MizukiYukiko, my-name-is-V, xStarryyAngellx, **and **websterdevil**


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